James Potter and The Marauders
by rackel1712
Summary: This is my version of the marauder's story. I try to follow the Harry Potter books and legitimate sources as close as possible, so this contains SPOILERS from the books mostly the the third, fifth, sixth, and SEVENTH . R/R!
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything that's not mine (characters, certain plot points and objects, etc, etc) All of that would be JK Rowling's.**

James Potter's head kept drooping to the side, his eyes half-closing in sleep as he watched the sun slowly and steadily pull itself above the horizon. He had his head in one hand, propping up his weary head and causing his glasses to shift slightly out of place. It had been a full six hours since he had awoken himself at midnight with an alarm clock and crept downstairs to the kitchen window where the owl post was dropped off. Six hours of waiting, an excited knot in his stomach that kept lurching every time he thought he saw motion.

He had hoped the owl would come at midnight, but it wasn't for a full six hours (and three minutes, according to the old clock on the wall) that it finally came; a strong, handsome tawny owl with a heavy parchment envelope tied to its leg. James hopped right off the chair he had been sitting on, knocking his thick glasses right off his face as he did so.

His hands shook as they fluttered around, searching for the lenses that he could hardly see. When they finally made contact he slammed them on his face with unnecessary force, just in time to see the owl swoop right past his nose, close enough for him to make out the Hogwart's crest stamped on the envelope it was carrying. Barely able to suppress a whoop of excitement, the young boy tore the letter away from the owl, who hooted in an almost understanding way, and flew up the stairs, shouting.

"Mum! MUM! DAD! IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE!" James yelled, crashing through his parent's door with the letter held aloft. Mr. and Mrs. Potter raised themselves groggily out of bed at the sound of their son's excitement. Neither one seemed sure of exactly what was going on; Mr. Potter was squinting at his son, unable to see what was causing all the ruckus without the help of his own thick glasses. He groped around the polished, wooden nightstand beside him until he found a thin stick of wood.

"Accio glasses," he muttered sleepily, pointing some distance across the room. Unfortunately, James' glasses were closer to the direction that his father pointed to, and as a result, zoomed off his face and into his father's waiting hands.

"Dad, I can't see!" James grumbled impatiently, almost panicked, as if afraid that he would never get his glasses back and, as a result, never see glorious letter that lay on the inside of the envelope he was holding.

He launched himself, half-blind, upon his parents bed, where his mother pulled him in her arms and placed his glasses gently back on his face. "What's here, dear?" she asked gently, pulling the letter from James' tightly clenched fist.

"My letter! My letter to Hogwarts!" he said, his voice ringing with joy as he pulled himself out of his mother's arms and began to bounce on his parents' mattress. His grin stretched from ear to ear, and his hazel eyes lit up with joy as he gazed upon the seal on the letter: a lion, a raven, a badger, and a snake, all intertwined around a regal letter H.

James was not the only one who was excited by this news. As soon as his rather tired parents realized just what their son was so excited about, both their faces lit up. Mr. Potter especially seemed excited at this news. "That's right! I almost forgot: you'll be heading off to Hogwarts this fall. It's not like you've mentioned it every, oh… five minutes since the beginning of June." James smiled sheepishly at his father's teasing, but was too eager to open the letter to respond.

"Can I open it, Mum? Please please pleeeeease?" he asked, his eyes growing huge and round with anticipation. She ruffled his already untidy black hair and simply handed over his slightly crumpled letter before falling back into her bed.

"Read it out loud, James," his father instructed, still unable to read the letter due to his lack of glasses. James began to read:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, _

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_ We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_ Minerva McGonagall_

_ Deputy Headmistress_

Below that was another piece of paper, with more writing:

_UNIFORM_

_First-year students will require:_

_Three sets of plain white work robes(black)_

_One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

_One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

_One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)_

_Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags_

_COURSE BOOKS_

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) __by Miranda Goshawk_

_A History of Magic__ by Bathilda Bagshot_

_Magical Theory__ by Adalbert Waffling_

_A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration__ by Emeric Switch_

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi__ by Phyllida Spore_

_Magical Drafts and Potions__ by Arsenius Jigger_

_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them__ by Newt Scamandar_

_Defense Against the Dark Arts__ by Arsenius Jigger_

_OTHER EQUIPMENT_

_1 wand_

_1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_1 set glass or crystal phials_

_1 telescope_

_1 set brass scales_

_Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad_

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

James looked up at his father hopefully. "I can smuggle one in, though, right?" he asked quickly, clearly hoping Mr. Potter would just agree without thinking. His father, however, just smiled and winked at him.

"Broomstick smuggling's out, young man. Wreaking havoc in the good name of Gryffindor, however…"

"And who's to say he'll be in Gryffindor?" Mrs. Potter jumped in, "Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin have all produced fine witches and wizards as well. And what's this about wreaking havoc? Don't encourage him to get expelled in his first week there!"

"Mum, I don't _want _to be in Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or _Slytherin_," James said, ignoring the second half of her statement. "Who would want to be in _Slytherin?_ They're all greasy gits up to their ears in the dark arts, Dad's always said—"

"Oh, has he now?" she asked, giving her husband a stern look. "I'll remind you that half my extended family's been in Slytherin, as has yours. As well as Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff!" James and his father both shook their heads; James with disgust and Mr. Potter with a resigned sort of air. "Oh, the both of you just calm down. Whichever house you're put in dear, you'll do wonderfully in. I'm off to make breakfast, now that the whole family's up," she said, slipping out from underneath the covers and grabbing her wands. "Pancakes for the family—a special treat for our new Hogwarts attendee."

As soon as his wife left the room, Mr. Potter turned to his son. "Don't you be worried James, you're off to Gryffindor without a doubt. Why, you're the best description of a Gryffindor I've seen since myself," he said as his son beamed at him.

Mr. Potter pulled himself up out of bed with a groan and cracked his back, raising his wand in his right hand to summon his glasses again. Before he could mutter the incantation, James interrupted.

"Dad, could I try?" he asked hopefully, pulling on his father's wand arm. His father contemplated for a moment before handing over his wand: mahogany, 11 inches, with the core of a dragon heartstring.

"You remember the incantation, right son?" James nodded, screwing up his face and holding the wand at an arm's distance.

"Accio glasses!" he said, pointing toward his father's rather thick-lensed pair. They rose a few inches off the dresser, wobbled unstably a foot forward, and fell to the floor. James watched, disappointed at his failure, and stuffed his wand back into his father's hand.

"That was a great try, James!" his father said, patting the small boy on the head. "That's a fourth year spell, you ought to remember; you're way ahead of your time." James still looked sulky, though a flicker of pride lit itself inside him at his father's words.

Unaware that his compliment had worked to cheer his son up, the elder Mr. Potter continued speaking. "And, since we've got your Hogwarts letter, I say it's high time you get a wand of your own. What do you say we head over to Diagon Alley after breakfast and stop in to Ollivanders-?"

"My own wand? Today? Really?" James nearly shouted, spinning around so fast he almost threw his glasses off. His father smiled.

"If you'd like. But," James' smile dropped, "your own wand means responsibility. No magic outside of school. Not unless I give my—ah—permission."

James nodded eagerly. "Yeah, fine, fine. Let's go eat breakfast!" He grabbed his father by the hand and dragged him down the stairs, ready to wolf down his breakfast and get to Diagon Alley within the hour.

**I'd just like to say I wrote most of this at one in the morning, so forgive me if it's bad. I'd like to continue it though, so tell me what you think. I'm trying to incorporate as much detail from the Harry Potter books into my James fan fictions as I possibly can, so forgive me if you feel like you've read a piece or two in the Prince's Tale or something like that. Hope you had fun reading the first chapter **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Anything that's not mine is JK Rowling's. You should know what's hers and what's just mine **

Two hours and one Gringott's trip later, James, his mother, and his father were walking down Diagon Alley together, soaking in the sights and sounds together. James, of course, had been here before, but never for himself. Walking past the shops on either side meant a great deal more when they were there for _him_ to shop in.

Due to the persistent nagging of his mother, they were to buy _all_ his schools supplies that day, not just his wand. _That_ was to be saved for last, much to James's displeasure. He refused to talk to his mum all through his robe fittings and halfway through their trip to Eylopes Owl Emporium, where she agreed to buy him his own handsome tawny owl for use at school.

James was so distracted by his new owl that he didn't even mind being dragged into Florish and Blotts to his school books.

"Go find a copy of your Transfiguration book, will you dear?" Mrs. Potter asked, pulling the owl from her son's grasp. "You'll get him back when we leave, I promise. But if you want to make it to Ollivander's before it closes, you're going to need to help find your books!" she said to counteract James's sulky glare. He stormed off to the back of the store to find _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_, accidentally bumping into another boy on the way.

"S-sorry!" the boy stuttered squeakily, hastily closing a book on experimental transfiguration and stuffing it back on the shelf. He was short, rather round, and had watery eyes and straggly brown hair. He looked extremely nervous, though James couldn't imagine why. What danger could there be in a bookshop?

"It's alright. My fault," James replied before turning away awkwardly to look at the shelves. He began scanning the shelves from top to bottom. He found the book he was looking for—a small but thick deep purple book—and turned around right into the smaller boy's face.

"_A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_?" the watery-eyed boy asked. James nodded, inching sideways back towards the front of the store. "So you're a first year, too?"

"Mmhm."

"Cool! Do you know what house you'll be in? My mum thinks I'll be in Hufflepuff. I'm not smart enough for Ravenclaw ,I don't think. I barely thought they'd let me into Hogwarts! And Slytherin scares me." His little eyes roamed the room as though looking for someone that was hiding. "You know this You-Know-Who fellow? I heard a couple of his followers came in here the other day _looking _for someone. Caused a huge panic."

"Oh _that's_ why you look so nervous. Scared of Voldemort, eh? You a muggle-born or something?" James asked. The little boy shook his head nervously. "Okay, okay. I'm not judgemental. I'm no Slytherin—I happen to have a few muggle friends, actually. Daft as can be; don't believe in magic at all, but fun enough if you want to go play on the playground or something." The mousy little boy squeaked noncomittedly and followed James as he walked back up to the front of the store.

"Ah, you found it James! We've got all of them now, save _A History of Magic_, but since dear Bathilda gave us a fresh copy a few months ago, we're set," Mrs. Potter said before turning to the nervous boy next to James. "And who is this, James? Who's your new friend?"

"Mum, he's not—"

"I'm Peter Pettigrew, ma'am. Nice to make your acquaintance," he squeaked, offering her a pudgy hand.

"Oh, how polite!" she exclaimed. "And where do you live, Peter? Maybe James could send you an owl before the school year starts. It'd be nice to start off with some friends in his own year."

"Mum, I've _got_ friends already," James hissed.

Peter, apparently unaware of James' muttering, answered, "Ottery St. Catchpole… I don't know if you're familiar with the Prewetts? We live right across the street from them."

"The Prewetts… very nice people, very nice. Well, Peter, we've got to run! But I'll make sure that James sends you an owl before the start of term."

With hurried goodbyes and a last, pleased look from Peter, the two Potters left the shop and headed over to the apothecary to meet Mr. Potter.

"Well, that's it!" James' father called out when he caught sight of his wife and son. "We've got everything: robes, books, cauldron, scales, telescope… am I forgetting anything?" He took out the list of Hogwarts supplies from his pocket and began matching up what he had to the list. "I think that's it, then. What do you say James? Want to stop in at Quality Quidditch Supplies and Fortescue's before we head home?"

"But Dad—my wand! You said—"

"Oh, I'm just fooling with you!" his father said, chuckling slightly. "We'll get your wand, James, don't you worry!" He and his wife exchanged a glance, and James' father passed all his parcels to his mother. "Race you," he said. James and his father crouched low, both ready to run.

His mother rolled her eyes and gave the countdown, "Three…two—"

James raced off, too excited by the prospect of getting a wand to be fair. He dodged between shoppers, his Transfiguration book bumping by his side, knocking into a couple on the way to the old, rather broken-down old shop that stood at the end of the alleyway. He crashed through the door, nearly breaking it off its hinges, and skidded to a stop at the feet of an old, spindly wizard with strange silver eyes.

"Well hello there, Mr…."

"Um, Potter," James muttered, breathing a bit heavily.

"Potter? Son of Charlus Potter?"

"Er—yes, that's me," he answered. Mr. Ollivander was beginning to weird him out—whether it was the fact that he knew his father's name, the fact that he never blinked, or just the general aura of creepiness he seemed to be expelling, James wasn't sure.

"Yes, yes, I remember his wand well—mahogany, 11 ½ inches, rather sturdy, with the core of a unicorn tail hair, correct?" James nodded, even more freaked out now than he was before. It was, luckily, at this moment that James' father decided to walk through the door.

"Ah, Charlus! Good to see you again! We were just discussing your wand. Keeping it well, I hope?" Mr. Potter nodded, pulling out his wand for Ollivander to look at. "A fine wand, very fine. I remember the unicorn I took the hair from; it was sleeping at the time, and lucky for me—it was a rather large one. Now you're married to…"

"Dorea," Mr. Potter said, smiling at the sound of his wife's name.

"Dear Dorea Black. Yes, I remember now—vine, 10 ¼ inches, with the core of a dragon heartstring—Norweigen Ridgeback, in particular. Rather good for transfiguration, am I right?"

"That's the one!" James's father answered. Mr. Ollivander nodded and, without an answer, hurried off to get a box.

He returned a moment later with a long, thin box in his hands. "Here," he said, offering the wand to James, "try it: Mahogany, 11 inches, with a dragon heartstring core. Pliable and good for transfiguration."

James picked it up cautiously, and it seemed to fit perfectly into his hand. Warmth spread up his fingers and right through him. He would have known, without Ollivander's approval, that this was the wand for him. "Wonderful!" cried Mr. Ollivander.

"I'll never know how you do it, sir," said James' father, nodding his head approvingly. He pulled out six golden Galleons and handed them to Mr. Ollivander before walking out of the shop.

In a way, it was more anticlimactic than James had thought. It had taken only a moment to walk in, get his wand, and walk out. And now he couldn't use it for another couple months.

He was so preoccupied by his wand that he didn't realize he had forgotten his Transfiguration book until he was halfway down the alley. Assuring his father he would be alright to return on his own, he wandered back down the alley towards the wand shop. He wanted to go in unnoticed by anyone, but the little bell over the door gave him away. Mr. Ollivander and two customers—a girl with bright red hair and green eyes, and a boy with black hair and a hooked nose—all looked at him. Blushing, he ran over to the corner and grabbed his book.

"Now, as I was saying, I wouldn't try and duel each other. Your two wands contain hairs from the very same unicorn—attempting to turn them against each other could produce very rare and, dare I say, interesting results," Mr. Ollivander continued, his attention fully back on his two costumers. James dashed quietly back to the door.

"You don't have to worry about that, sir. It's not like _we'd_ ever be dueling each other," James heard the boy say before the door closed behind him.

He hurried back to his mother and father, who was waiting outside of Fortescue's with a large ice cream. James took the ice cream and pulled his parents to look at broomsticks at Quality Quidditch Supplies. After moaning and begging for a broomstick and being repeatedly turned down, James took his owl back from his mother and stormed from the Alley and into the Leaky Cauldron, which was absolutely bursting with people.

Aware that he had to wait for his parents to catch up to him, he sat alone at a table and began drumming the table with his fingers. He looked carefully at his unnamed owl, which was currently asleep. "I guess I'd better name you then, hm?" he said quietly. He thought hard about his owl's name; for certainly this was the type of thing that shouldn't be rushed. After a long few minutes of contemplation, he decided on Godric. It was rash, perhaps, to name his owl after a house that he hadn't yet been sorted into, but James didn't care. He knew it was where he truly belonged, and the Sorting Hat would have to see that too.

Ten minutes later, his parents found him in the Leaky Cauldron and berated him for running off without them. After using floo powder to get back home, he flew up to his room to pack all his school supplies in his trunk. His father came in with a rather large bag hidden behind his back, which he stuffed in his son's trunk with the strict instructions, "Do _not_ use these anywhere except the school." Upon closer inspection, the bag was revealed to contain a huge supply of dungbombs, fireworks, and other pranking materials.

James closed his trunk with a click and sat on his bed. He was ready to leave, to start having adventures. All that was left to do was wait. And wait. And wait. For September 1st.

**So this chapter turned out nothing like I planned, and yeah pretty much it was a filler chapter. Sorry **** I swear I'll make it better. James will be heading off to Hogwarts soon, so it should get interesting from there **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: JK Rowling's stuff is hers, not mine. Though I wish it were.**

The school year inched closer and closer, and every day of the summer James itched for the first of September. Even more annoying than the distance of the school year was his mother's constant nagging that he send Peter Pettigrew an owl.

"Mum, _why_ do I have to send him anything? I barely know him!"

"He seemed like a very sweet boy. And you need wizard friends your own age! There aren't any Hogwarts newcomers around here, and –"

"But I'll _make_ friends—I'll be fine!"

"Just one bit of owl post, dear. That can't hurt anyone."

So, grudgingly, James sent Peter Pettigrew an owl three weeks before the term started.

_Hi, Peter_

_We weren't really introduced before. My name is James Potter, and this is my owl, Godric. After Godric Gryffindor. That's what house I'm going to be in at Hogwarts, just like my dad. AND I'm going to be a great prankster and a huge Quidditch star, but not until next year, I guess. I'm going to play Chaser. My mum thinks that I won't have friends or something, but she's wrong… I'm going to have the best friends ever! We'll have lots of great adventures and sneak out at night and run through the corridors and the grounds and make friends with things in the Forbidden Forrest like centaurs and werewolves and whatever else lives in there. You'll see._

And then, because he felt quite bad about all his bragging, added:

_How has your summer been?_

_ From, _

_ James_

He then attached the letter to Godric's leg and sent him out the window, hoping that his owl was completely unreliable and would get lost before it reached little Peter Pettigrew's house. Then again, Peter didn't seem the type to be sorted into Gryffindor, so once they got to Hogwarts they could just go their separate ways and pretend they'd never met.

A couple of days passed until Godric came back, carrying a rather long letter from Peter:

_Hello James!_

_I'm really excited for Hogwarts—I hope I get sorted into Gryffindor, then we could hang out all the time! I'm not very good at Quidditch, so I'd never make the house team. I've only flown once, if you can believe it! Heights make me nervous. I'd love to watch you play, you sound really, really good if you expect to make the house team as a second year. As for the pranking thing… It sounds awfully dangerous to sneak out to the Forbidden Forrest and be out of bed after hours, but besides that sounds like tons of fun. I've heard there are all sorts of secret passageways throughout the castle that lead to different places. Maybe we could find some! I'm not much good at finding things, or magic even really; I didn't even know they were letting me into Hogwarts until I got my letter. But I bet if you helped me out, we could find tons of stuff that no one's ever found before, because you sound really smart!_

_ See you in three weeks,_

_ Peter_

James stared at the letter for a little while, unsure about what to make of it. Peter was starting to grow on him… maybe he wasn't so bad. After all, he acknowledged that James was a great Quidditch player and even said that he was smart enough to find some of Hogwarts' secret passageways. Would it really be so bad to keep Pettigrew around as a friend? What was the worst that could happen?

So James wrote back. A week after he had gotten a reply. He didn't want to seem too eager. After all, he'd have to see Pettigrew in his crowd of friends that he was going to have at Hogwarts before he really accepted him. If he was just a whiny, stupid git in real life, he wouldn't want him around. But he'd keep writing, just in case.

The days crept by until it was finally August thirty-first. His parents came in to double check that his trunk was packed, and his father actually emptied and re-filled the trunk twice until he said it was "properly packed." James wasn't sure what he meant, since he had never seen his father pack anything in his entire life, unless it was just throwing random objects in a bag.

He found it hard to sleep that night, but managed to doze off picturing the Hogwarts Express and what the Gryffindor common room would look like.

**Okay, short chapter. The next one should be longer, and more closely related to the Harry Potter books. It's going to be September first, after all! **** And James' first ride on the Hogwarts Express.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: See other chapters… you know.**

James was up early the next morning, ready to jump on the Hogwarts Express at six in the morning. Unfortunately, the train didn't leave from Platform 9 ¾ until eleven o'clock, so James was forced to sit in his room or in the kitchen or in the living room for the next four hours, when his parents would finally take him, via-side-along-apparition, to King's Cross.

He was tempted to take out his trunk and repack it again, but was too lazy. Instead, he decided to take out a single book (_The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1)_ and skim through it, picking up spells that he could show off while on the train.

It lasted him the whole four hours; it was only when his mother rapped on his door and informed him that he had to get going that he finally put it away.

Something caught his attention when he was shoving his book back into his trunk. Apparently, part of a cloak had slipped out of his bag. But it wasn't a cloak James recognized. It was lighter and gauzier; sort of silvery and strange. He tugged at it until it came free of the trunk, and held it up to the light. He couldn't tell exactly what it was about the cloak, but he felt the need to put it on. James swung it over his shoulders and looked down to readjust it…

But there was nothing there. His feet, legs, body… it was all gone. He pulled off the cloak, and his body reappeared, unharmed and perfectly normal. It didn't take long for him to put it together. This was an invisibility cloak. _An invisibility cloak!_ The perfect aid for any determined mischief maker. It must have been his father's—his mother would never approve—but why hadn't he seen it before?

He stuffed the cloak back into his trunk, not bothering to fold it, and shut it before dashing down the stairs. "Dad?" he said, running up to him in the kitchen.

"How are you, James? Excited for the start of term?" his father asked, smiling.

"Dad… in my trunk upstairs, is that an _invisibility cloak?"_

"I'm sure I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about, James," he said, casting a glance at his wife before bending close to his son's ear. "Family tradition… just don't let your mother know, she'd kill me!"

He straightened up just as Mrs. Potter walked into the kitchen, carrying Godric in his cage. "Charlus, could you get James's trunk for me, I…"

"Of course, dear! Be back in a jiffy." James couldn't help but chuckle at his father's earnestness. He obviously didn't want the invisibility cloak discovered.

Half an hour later, James and his family were standing outside the barrier that shielded platform 9 ¾ from muggle eyes. His parents led him through, and he finally caught his first glimpse of the crimson Hogwarts express, belting white steam from the engine. It was a beautiful sight; more magnificent than anything he could have pictured. He took off from his parents and ran toward the train, pushing his cart with all his belongings towards the baggage compartment. His parents followed, but were quickly stopped by family friends and were caught up in conversation.

There was only one other boy by the baggage compartment: He was young (a first year, James hoped), with rather long, stylish black hair and grey eyes. James thought he was rather cool looking; he gave off an aura of being very sure of himself. _This_ was the type of guy that James wanted to hang around with. As long as he wasn't a Slytherin, of course.

"Need help?" James asked, lifting up the other side of the boy's trunk and helping him to throw it in.

"Nah, I could've gotten it," he said, assisting James now. Once everything was stored away, the two boys stood looking at each other a bit awkwardly.

"Sirius," said the boy, offering his hand after a moment. "Sirius Black. You?"

"James Potter," he said, taking the hand that Sirius offered. "What year are you in?"

"First," Sirius answered, as if challenging James in some way; he clearly knew how to stand up for himself.

"Me, too."

"Really?"

"Yup!" The two boys smiled at each other, pleased to have found someone they could, at the very least, sit next to on the train without question.

"So, er, where's your family?" James asked, trying to strike up a conversation. He couldn't see anyone around them that looked similar to Sirius. No one close seemed to have his cool composure, or even his facial features.

Sirius scowled, and James suddenly felt back for asking. What if his family was dead and he seemed like an insensitive git? Sirius pointed off to the left, however, and James' anxiety was relieved. Back in the corner of the station were a group that James hadn't even noticed.

"Oh…" Sirius's family was nothing like him. They all looked cold, very unlike Sirius's welcoming face and expressions. There were three of them: a man and woman who were older, and a young boy that looked almost identical to Sirius, but with an ugly scowl on his face, as if he was being dragged here against his will. They all had the same dark hair and striking grey eyes.

"My mom, dad, and little brother Regulus," he said, pointing them all out in turn. "I'd uh… better go say goodbye now. I'd rather not, but I figure…" he trailed off. "Want to meet up in the back of the train? I'd like to start out this trip with a friend."

"Absolutely," said James, smiling, "I'd better go say bye to my own family. Er… see you in a few." Sirius nodded, stuck his hands in his pockets, and with a determined look, shuffled towards his family. James rushed off to his own, throwing himself in his mother and father's waiting arms.

"Have a good time," his mother whispered to him, squeezing him tightly.

"Write often," his father added.

"And stay out of trouble!" James looked at his mother disbelievingly, and she looked back sternly. The tension broke after only a moment, and the family found themselves in the midst of a group hug.

James finally pulled himself away and, still waving, climbed aboard the train. As soon as he could no longer see his parents, he began to jog straight to the back, finally opening the last compartment on the left, behind a group of rowdy boys. Sirius was already sitting down, along with a small redheaded girl with her face pressed against the windowpane. James thought she might have been crying; Sirius kept shooting her nervous looks, as though unsure if he should leave.

Only a moment after he sat down, the compartment door opened once more. This time it was a greasy haired kid with a large nose who seemed slightly familiar to James. He sat down next to the girl, who finally turned around. Her face was streaked with tears, and it was obvious that she wanted only to talk to the new boy. James and Sirius both looked determinedly away from them, pretending not to notice.

"I don't want to talk to you," the girl said.

"Why not?"

"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."

"So what?" the boy asked. He clearly saw no problem with whatever it was that they were talking about.

"So she's my sister!"

"She's only a—" but the boy cut himself off. A what? James couldn't help but wonder. He thought about asking, but didn't. That might be rude.

The boy picked up the conversation again. "But we're going! This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!" There was a slight pause. "You'd better be in Slytherin."

James couldn't help himself. He looked at the pair. "Slytherin?" He turned to Sirius. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

Sirius wasn't smiling, and James had that dreadful feeling of saying something insulting by accident again. "My whole family have been in Slytherin." James could feel his jaw drop at this statement, and tried to recover.

"Blimey, and I thought you were all right!" he chuckled, trying to pass it all off as a joke.

Sirius finally cracked a smile. "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

James lifted an invisible sword.

"' Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad." He heard the other boy in the compartment make a small, disapproving noise.

"Got a problem with that?" James asked, whipping his head around.

The kid sneered. "No. If you'd rather be brawny than brainy—"

"Where are you going, seeing as you're neither?" Sirius said nastily. James couldn't help but laugh.

The red headed girl finally decided to enter the conversation. James couldn't help but notice that she was pretty, though her face had a rather displeased expression on it.

"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."

"Oooooo…" James mocked her; he heard Sirius join in.

James stuck out his leg as the greasy kid passed, and on a sudden inspiration shouted, "See ya, Snivellus!" The compartment door slammed behind the two of them, and Sirius burst out laughing.

"I guess I really shouldn't, seeing as my whole family's been in Slytherin, but… Snivellus? What a slimeball. Too bad the redhead's with him, she was kind of pretty wasn't she? Why, in a few years…" Sirius trailed off, probably imagining himself being flocked by older girls.

"You think they were like… together? Like _dating_?" James asked, kind of upset by this view of things. He didn't like the idea of that ugly git getting a girlfriend before he did, especially when the girl was so pretty. _He _should be the first one in his year with a girlfriend. One of the first, anyway.

His thoughts were momentarily interrupted when the compartment door slid open yet again, revealing a rather scrawny and shabby looking boy, who immediately muttered, "Sorry, sorry," and began closing the compartment door. Sirius grabbed the handle before it completely closed, however, and waved the boy inside.

"Come on in. What're you apologizing for? It's not like you walked in on us snogging or anything," he laughed, pulling his feet off the seat in order to make more room for the boy. He was already wearing his robes, and had a strange, mixed look of both excitement and complete fear at being talked to by strangers.

"Oh, you know," the new boy stammered, clutching a book in his hands so hard his knuckles turned white. "Just didn't want to… I'm Remus. Remus Lupin," he said, blushing.

"Sirius," Sirius said, sticking out his hand. "Sirius Black." Remus grabbed his hand tentatively, shook it quickly, and let go.

"And I'm James Potter," James followed, raising his own hand in greeting. Remus smiled slightly and sat down.

At first look, James had to admit, Remus looked… like a loser. His robes were patched and frayed, he was ridiculously thin, obviously shy, and had bags under his eyes as though he hadn't slept in a while. He looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't bring himself to spit it out.

It was difficult to say why James took such an immediate liking to him. Maybe it was because he gave off an aura of intelligence, which James thought a valuable quality in an accomplice and friend. Or maybe it was because underneath his outer appearance, James spotted something about Remus that he liked: something tough, sneaky, and fierce.

"We were just talking about houses," Sirius said. James snorted; last he checked the conversation had definitely been about girls. "Which do you think you'll be in?"

"I'm—er—not sure, to be honest. I think it's a toss-up where I'll go. If any of the houses even want me." His expression became very solemn, and James thought he even looked a little ill.

"I don't think you can _not_ be sorted into a house. I mean, that's what Hufflepuff's for, isn't it?" Sirius laughed. Remus still looked solemn.

"'What's wrong? Listen, we won't bite you!" James exclaimed, kind of put out by Remus's total rejection of any conversation. He didn't think he was a bad guy, and he seemed like he could make a good friend and fellow prankster… if only he would lighten up.

Coincidentally, it was at this moment that Remus burst out laughing. It was a nervous little laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. "Bite…" he choked. "Bite. Oh, Merlin…"

Sirius caught James' eye, and he shrugged. Remus's laughs slowly faded into silence, during which he apologized.

After a moment or two of struggling for conversation, the compartment fell silent once more. James was racking his brains; there had to be _something_ more to talk about. Suddenly, it came to him.

"So… guess what I've got in my trunk right now?"

Sirius stared at him quizzically. "Robes?" he asked, "Books?"

"Yeah, yeah but _besides _that. You'll never guess."

"Well if we'll never guess, then why would you ask?" Remus piped up, looking slightly shocked at his own nerve.

"Well, because… just… that's besides the point. Guess!"

"Why don't you just _tell_ us?" Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

"Fine." James paused dramatically. "An _invisibility cloak_."

"No!" Remus exclaimed, clearly awed.

"Seriously?" James nodded. Sirius cocked an eyebrow. "You know what we could do with an invisibility cloak, right?"

"Well… if we all get sorted into the same house. Otherwise…" James trailed off.

"What? We could still do things. It just wouldn't be as…"

"Easy?" asked Remus.

"Possible," clarified James. "I mean, think about it. I don't really know where any of the common rooms are, but they probably aren't close. Think of how much time that would take to collect everyone."

"True…" said Sirius glumly. "Damn. And you're going to be a Gryffindor for sure. I wish I had a different family… one where being sorted into a house other than Slytherin wasn't a crime."

"And I wish that…nevermind," muttered Remus.

"No, what?" James pressed.

"Well… I just… like I said, I don't think I fit into any of the houses well. Not even Hufflepuff. I doubt even she'd see any good in me."

"Remus, Hufflepuff saw good in _everyone_. One of the reasons my parents hate the house almost as much as Gryffindor. They think she'd have taken muggles into Hogwarts if someone had offered."

"Do you really think you're headed for Slytherin?" asked James.

"Well… I desperately hope I'm not. I don't want to turn out like the rest of my family. We don't… get along very well. They're all for pureblood mania… they think that old Slytherin had the right idea when he tried to make the school more pure."

"So do they support Voldemort?" Remus asked bitterly. It was the most emotion that he had showed all day. Sirius looked so shocked at his tone that he flinched a little.

"They, well, yeah, they think he's got the right idea. They're not Death Eaters, or anything… they haven't gotten in that far. But yeah, they've rallied behind his ideas and all. But not me!" he exclaimed, almost frightened at the look in the little Lupin's eyes. "I'm nothing like them. Any life's a life, right? And if you can do magic, then a wizard is a wizard is a wizard. There's no need to discriminate. And my family's so screwed up anyway… I'd love to be sorted into Gryffindor and shut them all up once and for all."

Remus relaxed a little at his words, but still looked a little bit tense. He began impulsively rub his upper arm on one side, eventually scratching it through his robes. James didn't even bother asking. This Remus kid was beginning to weird him out a little.

Even so, the three boys continued polite conversation for another hour, until little Peter Pettigrew stumbled in, raving about a "lunatic girl" who had just tried to Jelly-legs Jinx him as he wandered the compartments looking for James.

"Let me guess… Lots of curly hair, heavy-lidded eyes, shrill, _annoying_ voice?" Sirius asked.

"Well… yeah," said Peter, obviously confused.

"That's my cousin, Bellatrix. I suggest you stay away from her; she's a rather nasty piece of work. Just stay in here with us—she won't bother you while I'm around. Not since I bat-bogey hexed her," he smirked.

"You can _do_ that? That's a third or fourth year spell, isn't it?" Peter asked, awed. Sirius looked immensely pleased with himself and continued to tell a rather thrilling tale about stealing his mother's wand, a deranged house elf, and cursing his cousin.

It turned out that Peter had a knack for getting people to cough up interesting facts about themselves. Sirius and James demonstrated their already impressive magic skills (much to Peter's delight), and even got Remus to admit that he had a knack for dealing with dark creatures. He opened up a bit after telling a fantastic story about escaping a Hinkypunk while on vacation.

By the time the lunch trolley came around, the four boys felt they knew almost everything there was to know about one another.

Eventually, the train stopped, and the four boys looked at one another mournfully, knowing that this could be the end of their fantastic time together. If they got sorted into different houses, it would be much harder to talk to each other and plan pranks; even Sirius, the most laidback of the group, looked terrified. He knew that if he were to be sorted into Slytherin, his time with the other three boys would be at an end.

They stayed silent as they worked their way off the train and into the little boats that herded the first years across the lake. It seemed to be a mutual agreement between them all: This was their way of saying goodbye, without actually having to say it. After all, they would look pretty dumb if they had their heartfelt goodbyes and then ended up rooming together.

Peter was the one who broke under the pressure. "It's hopeless!" he cried as he tripped getting out of his boat. "All of you are brave and smart and accomplished; you'll get into Gryffindor or Ravenclaw together for sure!"

"Oh, shut it Peter. If anyone's got to be worried it's me!" Sirius snapped. "My family's been in stinkin' Slytherin for generations! You saw my cousin, I told everyone what my family was like! It'll be a miracle if I escape the trend!"

Remus opened his mouth, but closed it quickly as his face drained of color; James didn't press him for information. He looked as if he were going to be sick.

In a wild blur that James barely took in, he and the other first years were herded into the chamber outside the Great Hall, heard a strict professer speak, and were lined up inside the Great Hall in front of the Sorting Hat. The four boys looked at each other, took a deep breath, and prepared for the sorting to begin.


	5. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter was originally written by JKR. Anything I write that was mentioned in her books is just being "borrowed" (if that's even the right word) by me. I don't own it. And never will. Sadly **

The hat sat on the stool as everyone stated at it. It just sat there. And sat there. Then it began to sing. James was barely listening.

_It was a thousand years ago_

_When Hogwarts first was formed_

_Four true friends of magic skill…_

His head couldn't handle all the words. It was as if there was a faint buzzing in his ears, that only the sound of his pounding heart could get through.

Now the strict, dark-haired professor was calling out names. What was her name? Mc-something. McGoggles? Mc-McGonagall! The head of Gryffindor house. How could he forget? He felt his palms sweating and itched to look at one of his new friends, but fought the urge. He couldn't bear seeing the fear and nervous energy in their eyes too.

"Black, Sirius!" The name rang out like a bell, and James snapped his head up as if his own name had been called. He noticed that the Slytherin table seemed to perk up at the mention of his name—he heard one of them whoop in appreciation, as though Sirius had already been sorted. Sirius stalked up to the stool, jammed the hat over his casually messy hair, and waited.

He wasn't sure if the hat was _actually_ taking an abnormally long time, or if James was just imagining it. Whatever the case, it seemed to take hours for the hat to sort Sirius. The hat showed no signs of stress; the boy, however, had his turned skyward, as if praying to the hat.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat finally yelled. James felt a smile spreading across his face: a cheek-cramping, full-of-joy smile that Sirius returned when he passed his friends to go sit at the Gryffindor table. The red and gold-clad students looked surprised, but cheered anyway. The Slytherins looked confused and angry. One of them, a seventh-year which James assumed to be Sirius's cousin, shot Sirius a gesture that would have gotten her detention if the teachers had seen it.

"One down," James muttered, half to himself and half to Remus and Peter behind him. He felt them shift nervously beside him as more people were sorted—four Hufflpuffs, three Ravenclaws, four Slytherins, and two Gryffindors, before James recognized another face.

"Evans, Lily!" She walked up to the stool, placed the hat on her head, and after a moment's consideration, it shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" James heard a groan behind him, and looked to see Snivellus, the boy from the train.

He watched Evans, Lily prance towards the Gryffindor table, where Sirius scooted aside to make room for her. He saw her turn away with her arms crossed, and sit determinedly far away from him.

Eventually, Remus was called up for his turn with the hat. He, too, seemed to be a difficult one to sort. With every passing moment he got paler and paler, and his knuckles clenched the sides of the stool. At one point, James thought he was shaking. He, too, was sorted into Gryffindor, apparently to his immense surprise.

"That's two, Peter," he whispered to the general area behind him. He thought he heard a slight squeak, but it was hard to tell since at the same moment, Mary McDonald was sorted into Gryffindor.

Three more people, and then it was Peter's turn. James knew he had to be soon; Pettigrew and Potter weren't far apart.

Peter went faster than the other two, but he could see that he, too, was arguing with the hat. He kept shooting glances at the Gryffindor table where Remus and Sirius sat, and towards James. Then the hat finally shouted out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

As he expected, his name directly followed Peter's. He felt his knees shaking as he approached the stool, and forced them to stop before he picked up the hat. If it felt his knees knocking, it would think he wasn't brave, and wouldn't have a chance of making it into Gryffindor.

The hat dipped over his eyes so that, thankfully, he couldn't see the faces staring at him as the hat whispered in his ear.

"Oh, this should be good fun, sorting you. Intelligent enough for Ravenclaw, certainly, and a sly, mischievous mind that could work well in Slytherin. But you don't belong in either of those, no… True and brave at heart, chivalrous and full of nerve… you belong in GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat shouted the last word out to the entire hall. James tore the hat off his head and sprinted to the Gryffindor table, where he nearly jumped on all of his new friends. He felt pats on the back and congratulations cried from every corner of the table, but he barely felt or heard them. His brain seemed to have gone into a state of mind-numbing bliss with his addition to Gryffindor, and he barely noticed when his rival, Snivellus, was sorted into Slytherin.

Eventually, all the first years were sorted into houses and the Sorting Hat was put away. It was only then that James realized quite how hungry he was.

It seemed that food, however, was going to have to wait. For at that moment, Headmaster Dumbledore stood up and spread his arms wide, silencing the loud and rowdy group of students in front of him.

He was everything that he had ever imagined the headmaster of Hogwarts to be: tall, thin, and bearded, with half-moon spectacles perched in front of his twinkling blue eyes. Sirius and Peter were looking at him impatiently, but Remus looked as if he were about to run up and give the old man a hug.

"Though I have many important announcements advising you on what to do and what not to do this school year, they can all wait until we've filled ourselves with pudding!" said Dumbledore, sweeping his arms gracefully in the direction of the four house tables. They immediately filled themselves with foods of every sort.

"Food!" roared Sirius, causing an outbreak of giggles amongst the other Gryffindors. He stood up and reached over the table for some chicken, loading up his plate so that the food spilled over the edge.

"Geez, it's like you've never eaten before!" James laughed, filling his own plate with delectable dishes.

"Yeah, well, I'm not a huge fan of the food our house elf makes," said Sirius, pulling a face. "Though I'm the only one in my family who isn't—sometimes I think that he puts something funny in my food to make me suffer."

"You've got a _house elf_?" cried Peter, spilling pumpkin juice down his front in his excitement.

"Yeah. But geez, mate, it's really not that big of a deal. You come from an ancient line of gits, they're going to have a generation of house elves following them around, trying to lick their boots." He said all of this bitterly, and James felt bad for a moment. Then Peter spilled his second glass of pumpkin juice all over the table, some of it spilling off the table and into James's lap. He leapt up to a chorus of laughter from his fellow Gryffindors.

He noticed Lily Evans, the girl from the train, smirking haughtily, as if he deserved to be embarrassed. This bothered him more than he wanted to let on, and couldn't help blushing scarlet when her eyes met his. James reached over to grab a wad of napkins to clean up the mess, "accidentally" knocking Lily's own juice into _her_ lap.

"That was _completely_ unnecessary!" she shrieked, leaping from the table just as James had. He heard his three friends laughing riotously behind him, and turned to give them a big grin and a sweeping bow.

That was when he felt something sticky hit the back of his head. His friends were clutching their stomachs, laughing, when James reached up to touch the back of his head. His fingers came away sticky and wet, covered with some sort of pudding.

He whipped around towards Lily, who looked a little surprised and very pleased with herself. Almost in a daze, James picked up a handful of mashed potatoes and tossed them at Lily, who retaliated with some hot gravy. Sirius, sitting closest to James, was splattered with a few drops, and jumped up to aid his friend.

Somehow, the small spat turned into a full-out food fight between the Gryffindor house table. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall made their way down towards the students to try and stop them, and only after a silencing charm and several shield charms had been cast did the throwing of food stop.

Dumbledore didn't seem particularly mad; in fact, he seemed quite amused at the parsnip dripping from the brim of his hat, and simply waved his wand once to clean up the rather huge mess. Professor McGonagall, however, was a different story. Her lips were pressed so tightly together that they had turned white.

"An embarrassment!" she whispered fiercely to the Gryffindors. "I will be talking to all of you, back in the common room. You two—" she said, pointing specifically at James and Lily. "Can come with me right now."

James and Lily worked their way out from the tables and followed Professor McGonagall out of the Great Hall and into the hallway. Students from all four houses looked after them, pointing and whispering and, in some cases, laughing.

When the large doors leading out of the hall slammed shut behind the three of them, James knew they were in serious trouble.

"You two," Professor McGonagall scolded, "have exhibited behavior that I would never expect to see from Gryffindor. Our house has been held in high esteem since the founding of the house almost a thousand years ago, and you two… why, you've just put on the most disgusting display of disrespect and carelessness I've seen in the years I've worked here!"

"Professor, I—"

"Evans, is it? I don't care what excuses you have, nothing would make that type of behavior acceptable. Both of you will receive detentions, and twenty points from Gryffindor apiece!"

"Professor! From your own house?" James exclaimed.

"Yes, Potter, from my own house. And I expect improved behavior in the future, or your punishments next time will be _much worse._" She glared at them sternly over her spectacles, and Lily and James stood there in ashamed silence, listening to the scraping of benches and patter of footsteps from within the Great Hall.

"You may report to the common room now," she told them as students began to file past. "The prefects should tell you the password. I'll send word of your detentions tomorrow."

**Sorry it's been so long—I broke the power cord on my laptop and had to get a new one, and then I was on vacation, and blah blah blah. The ending is kind of abrupt, (sorry) but I thought I should put something new up **


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the world in which he exists. But I love them. A lot.**

Lily and James managed to latch on to a straggling group of Gryffindors all headed in the same direction. They didn't know anyone, but didn't want to talk to or acknowledge one another. It was a rather long and awkward walk to the common room.

When they finally reached the entrance (a painting of a rather fat lady in a pink dress) and learned the password (Cornucopia), the two split up to go to their respective dorms without so much as a look goodbye. Each was so mad or embarrassed with the other that each face was a distinctive shade of pink.

James climbed the stairs to the boys' dormitory, and entered into the first years' room. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were all waiting for him inside.

For a moment, they all stared at each other guiltily, wondering if James was about to yell at one of them for getting him in trouble or not taking the blame. Then Sirius began laughing—it was a loud, barking sort of laugh, which made the three other Gryffindors burst into a fit of giggles.

"Did you get in trouble?" Remus asked quietly, having calmed down the fastest of the four boys.

"Yeah—detention and points off for the both of us," James said solemnly. Then he grinned again, "But it was definitely worth it."

"Ah, shame about the points though—I mean, detention's no big deal… each of my cousins must have done it a thousand times—but with such a bad start this early in the year, we'll have a tough time making it up to win the house cup," Sirius said.

James made a noncommittal sound and slid onto the last four-poster available. "Well… now that we're here…" he slid his trunk from the end of his bed and opened it up, rifling through it until he found the silvery cloak that had been stuffed in there.

"Well—just like I promised. An _invisibility cloak_," James said, holding it up and displaying it to all his friends. Sirius jumped off his own bed and took it, throwing it around his shoulders, while Remus and Peter just looked on in awe.

"Do you know what kind it is?" Remus asked.

"What do you mean 'what kind'?" Sirius said, sliding the cloak over his head and off again while looking in the mirror. "It's an invisibility cloak, isn't it?"

"Yes, but there are different kinds—ones infused with a Disillusionment Charm or Bedazzling Hex, or woven out of the hair of a Demiguise…"

"Geez, Remus, why didn't the hat put you into Ravenclaw? I've never even _heard_ of a Demiguise before you just mentioned it," said James.

Remus gave a small smile. "Well, I suppose… it considered Ravenclaw, actually, but decided that, due to circumstances…" he trailed off, looking out the dormitory's only window towards the night sky. "Well, it ended up putting me in here, didn't it? So what does it matter as long as we're together, and friends?" He paused for a moment. "We _are_ friends, right?" he asked timidly, as if afraid they would deny him.

"Of course we are, Remus!" Sirius' voice shouted from somewhere behind Peter, who jumped three feet in the air out of shock and surprise.

"SIRIUS! There was _no_ need to frighten me like that!" Peter squeaked, clutching his little chest.

Sirius threw the cloak off and patted the frightened boy on the shoulder. "Ah, don't wet yourself, Peter, it was only a joke." He threw the cloak across the room back to James.

"I say we go exploring tomorrow night—find all the secret passageways and anything else we possibly can," James said eagerly, grinning at all his friends. "Unless, of course, I've got detention then…" he continued, trailing off.

"How about this weekend?" Peter piped up, eager to be included in anything that James wanted to do.

"This weekend sounds perfect!" Sirius concluded, "We'll be done adjusting to Hogwarts, so we'll be able to figure out what parts aren't interesting and where we need to actually _explore_."

Peter and James nodded enthusiastically, but Remus looked like he was about to object. He blushed scarlet and finally chimed in with a small nod of his head.

"This weekend then," James added with a note of finality before tucking the invisibility cloak back in his trunk and pulling out his pajamas. The other three did the same, and they all changed, Remus staying determinedly behind the curtains of his four-poster.

In no time at all, each of the four boys was in their own dreamworld, flying through adventures which they alone could ever imagine.

**A/N: Another short one, sorry about that! Them going to sleep felt like a good place to end it, as I'll be going to sleep now as well **


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine**

The four friends were up early the next day, ready to rush to their classes. It seemed that their first day was going to be full of excitement, until Professor McGonagall handed everyone their first year schedules.

"This is the worst first day I've ever seen!" Sirius exclaimed when he saw the classes listed for the day. "Double History of Magic—from what I've heard, it's taught by some loony old man about to snuff it any day and can hardly be bothered to make class interesting—then double Potions, and Astronomy tonight. Not a single ounce of wandwork in that entire schedule! It's like they're trying to drive us out!"

"Mr. Black, ten points from Gryffindor for unnecessary shouting," Professor McGonagall called from a little bit down the table. Sirius rolled his eyes and slammed his schedule down.

"Oh, it can't be all that bad—I'm sure Potions or Astronomy will be at least a little bit interesting," Remus chirped, filling himself with oatmeal.

Peter swallowed a huge pile of bacon and joined in the conversation. "I don't think I'm going to be much good at wand waving anyway," he said grimly.

They all sat there in an awkward silence for a moment; no one there doubted that Peter wouldn't be good. "We'll help you out," Remus said quietly, tentatively patting him on the shoulder.

Little by little, small groups of first year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs began working their way from the Great Hall towards the History of Magic classroom. Some found it right away, others got a bit lost, and James encouraged his friends to deliberately go in the wrong direction.

"There has to be a secret passageway around here somewhere," he explained, prodding random tapestries and doorways and pieces of wall with the tip of his wand.

"James, we're going to be late for class…"

"Then go on, Remus, run to class if you want. _I'm_ going to find a secret passageway." But Remus didn't leave.

After climbing three flights of stairs, Peter was wheezing. "Isn't this what this weekend is supposed to be for?" he asked.

"Hmph. If you want to go on to some _boring_ lesson on the history of magic, go right ahead. From what Sirius said, the professor's so daffy he won't even realize we never showed up."

"You know, I might have to agree with Peter and Remus on this one, mate. You've already got one detention… you really want to risk another one so close together?" When James didn't respond, Sirius added, "Just saying!"

James took one last look at the walls around him and sighed in defeat. "Fine. On to the wonderful world of goblin rebellions or something just as boring… Just give me one…more…" he started tapping every brick in the wall he could reach, and his friends had to pull him away to class.

The lesson had already started when they arrived, but as James predicted, Professor Binns barely noticed when they walked in late and took seats in the back of the classroom. He looked up blearily for a moment, confused, and then continued his reading in a vacuum-cleaner voice.

Even the students seemed too bored to look up from the terrible lecture. The exception, of course, was Lily Evans, who looked up briefly to give the four a look of disgust before turning back to her notes.

"Geez, she looks angry, doesn't she?" Sirius whispered quietly to James, who just shrugged before putting his head down on the desk. If he was being truthful, the look Lily Evans had given him made him upset. She was friends with a greasy git from Slytherin, true, but she was a Gryffindor. And kind of pretty. Nice, too, he assumed. Shouldn't _they_ be getting along, instead of her and _Snivellus_?

He must have fallen asleep somewhere within the lesson, because the next thing he knew Sirius was jabbing him with a quill and laughing, telling him to get up and it was time to move along to Potions with the Slytherins.

"We've got Potions with the _Slytherins_?" James asked, suddenly wide awake. "You didn't mention_ that_ this morning!" He tore his own schedule from his bag and realized that they did, indeed, have potions with the Slytherins.

"What difference does it make?" Sirius asked grimly. "All I know is that I probably have some far-off-distant-cousin who'll be gaping and sneering at me the whole time because I'm _not_ in Slytherin. So I didn't find it worth mentioning."

"Ah, sorry about that. But you know, this means our good friend Snivellus from the train will be in class with us…"

"Aha!" Sirius gestured triumphantly. "Let the fun begin!" Peter snickered and Remus looked slightly worried.

"You know that Professor Slughorn is the head of Slytherin, right?" James and Sirius both just shrugged this off, but Remus pressed on. "He's not going to take kindly to you messing with his own house, you know."

"Ah, well bully for Professor Slughorn then. I don't care. He's just an overstuffed walrus anyway." Remus opened his mouth again as if to protest, but thought better and closed it.

In no time at all, they were at the dungeon doors and shuffling in behind the Slytherins. James took note that Lily Evans went and sat herself down beside her friend Snivellus, who broke out in a huge, greasy smile at her appearance. They immediately began chatting pleasantly, and James found himself extremely annoyed.

"Come on, guys… back here," he said, pulling the sleeve of Remus's robe. Sirius and Peter followed, and the four sat at the table directly behind Lily and Severus Snape.

About a minute after the class had settled, Slughorn's round, green-clad stomach poked its way through the door and into the dungeon. He ruffled his gingery mustache and gave them all a welcoming smile. "Now then, now then, welcome to all you first years! And how has your first day been?" There was a slight murmuring around the classroom.

"Bloody boring!" Sirius shouted, drawing laughs from some of the Gryffindors.

Slughorn gave an overly-dramatic expression of surprise before asking for the boy's name. "Sirius, sir," he replied, omitting his last name.

"Sirius, Sirius what, m'boy? I can hardly tell who you are without a last name!"

At this, Sirius looked as though he deeply regretted speaking out originally. James wished he could think of some witty, quick remark that could distract Slughorn, but nothing seemed to be coming to him.

"Black," he finally admitted, "Sirius Black."

"Black?" exclaimed Slughorn, his eyes flicking quickly to the badge on Sirius' chest. "But—you couldn't possibly be related to Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa of the Ancient and—"

"—most Noble House of Black? Yeah, that's me," he muttered.

"Well, not to seem—rude, I suppose—but why aren't you in _my_ house? Why, the Blacks have been in Slytherin since—since before I even became a teacher here!"

"Guess I'm just breaking the trend, aren't I?" Sirius said, his voice full of rebellious pride. Slughorn looked a bit taken aback, and slowly turned away from Sirius and back to the general classroom.

"If all of you could take out your books and scales, we will be concocting an extremely simple potion today. I'll be surprised if any of you should get it too badly wrong…"

An hour later, it was extremely apparent who had a hand for potions and who didn't. Slughorn stood over both Lily and Severus's cauldrons, praising them for a rather long amount of time and trying to figure out their family history.

"Snape? I can't recall anyone of that surname—"

"My father was a muggle, sir," Snivellus said quickly and softly, as though he hated to utter the words. "You may have known my mother though, Eileen Prince…"

"Prince, Prince, of course! She was head of the gobstones club, was she not? Hm, didn't know she'd gotten married. Well, I've yet to see whether you inherited her talent at gobstones, but you sure have a right knack at brewing potions!"

"Thank you, sir."

"And you, my dear?"

"Lily Evans."

"Evans, Evans. Yet another unfamiliar name! I don't believe this has ever happened to me before!"

"Well perhaps… perhaps it's because I'm muggleborn, sir?" she phrased this as a question, and looked over at Severus, who nodded encouragingly.

"Muggleborn? Well, well that _is_ a surprise. Nonetheless, I think we can expect you to do wonderful things!" Slughorn smiled encouragingly and moved on to James' table.

"What did he mean '_nonetheless'?" _James heard Lily whisper to Severus. "I thought it didn't matter, being—"

James couldn't hear any more after that, for Slughorn was praising Sirius's potion and trying, once again, to figure out how a Black got sorted into Gryffindor. He appraised both Sirius and James' potions as "wonderful" and Remus's as "good," but when he came to poor Peter's, which was turning a foul mustard color, he wrinkled his nose and moved on with a pitying look on his face.

"Well, I guess we know that I'm rubbish at potion-making then," Peter sighed, throwing some unidentifiable leaves into the mix.

"Ah, that shouldn't be hard to fix. Here, just take some of this Armadillo bile…" Sirius leaned over and tried to help Peter, whose cauldron was beginning to glow as if overheated.

James, meanwhile, began to flick beetle eyes into the back of Snivellus's head. For a while, he thought his efforts were going unnoticed. Then he saw Lily's glare.

"Could you not be a total jerk for just _one_ second?" she hissed. Snivellus seemed to come out of some sort of daze at this moment, and realize that the back of his head was covered in slimy little eyeballs. His pale face flushed the tiniest bit pink.

"What?" James asked innocently, flicking one more beetle eye at Severus's greasy hair and grinning mischievously. He heard a supporting laugh from Sirius next to him and locked his hands behind his head in a "cool" gesture.

He wasn't ready when Severus whipped out his wand and pointed it squarely at James. "Locomotor Mortis!" he hissed, his eyes flicking towards Slughorn. James' legs snapped together, and he couldn't move to get his wand out without falling off his chair.

Snivellus gave a satisfied smile, but Lily pulled at his wand arm and whispered, "That wasn't necessary, Sev."

"Yeah, that wasn't necessary, _Sniv_." Sirius now had his own wand drawn in the defense of his friend, but with Slughorn so close, didn't dare to do anything.

"Boys, boys! What seems to be the trouble here?" Slughorn said, shuffling back over towards the spat.

"Snape cursed me, sir," said James innocently. From the corner of his eye, he saw Sirius flick his wand behind old Slughorn's back and whisper something.

"Only because _he_ was flicking potions ingredients at the back of my head, professor," Snape retaliated, running his hand through his hair. Sirius was grinning widely, and it was only now that James realized why. Snape's hair had been cleaned of anything that was in it—dirt, grease, beetle eyes, you name it. There was no proof to Snape's story, and so James couldn't get in trouble.

"They were there a moment ago, professor, I swear," Lily piped up.

Slughorn looked utterly bewildered, and eventually settled on taking five points from each house for misconduct. Then, with a wave of his wand he unlocked James' legs and warned everyone that there would be no more funny business in his class.

At that moment the bell rang and everyone hurried to gather up their supplies. From the corner of his eye, James saw Snivellus leading Lily out of the dungeons and towards the Great Hall.

After a rather hurried lunch, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter headed out to explore the castle some more before their next lesson.

"James… how _exactly_ do you find on planning a secret passageway just by prodding bricks and tapestries and all that?" Remus asked.

"Well my dad knows of a few, and he wouldn't tell me where they were but… he would always talk about statues and tapestries and everything like that. So I figured I'd just look around every statue and tapestry in the school until I found one."

"Listen, mate, I want to find secret passages and everything as much as you do, but that's kind of a really dumb idea."

"Well, Sirius, if you're _so smart_, why don't you go find the secret passageway then?"

"Maybe I…will…" Sirius said, trailing off. Filch, the cranky caretaker, was running down the hallway muttering about troublemakers. "Follow me!" Sirius whispered, then took off quietly down the hall behind Filch.

The three remaining boys looked around at each other, utterly perplexed. Then, in a mutual but silent agreement, they dashed after Sirius.

"SHHH!" Sirius whispered, ducking behind a suit of armor. "Listen, he can't know we're following him. Otherwise he won't go in one of them."

"One of wh—ouch!" Peter whispered as James slapped him upside the head.

"A _secret passageway, _obviously. I've heard rumors that Filch knows where they are… it's how he catches kids so fast. Great thinking, Sirius!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm brilliant. Now shut it!"

They began sneaking down the corridor, jumping behind suits of armor every so often. It wasn't too hard—Filch wasn't in bad shape, but they were young and quick and small enough to hide.

It took two minutes for Filch to reach a tapestry depicting the building of Gringotts, which he flung aside so that he could easily prod one of the stones behind it. The hallway was deserted besides the four Gryffindors, so Filch hurtled through and closed the passage behind him.

"Wow," Peter muttered.

"Guys, lunch is going to be over in less than five minutes… if we want to find our way to the astronomy tower we're going to have to turn back…"

"Remus, why do you always have to be the voice of reason?" Sirius sighed. "But you're right. Plus, we've got the cloak and this weekend all planned out—"

"Right," said James. Reluctantly, he turned around and waved his friends to follow. "We should really go… but this weekend… yeah…"

With one last longing look, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter darted off to their first astronomy lesson; the only one to be held during the daytime in order to introduce them to the subject.

In James' opinion, it was almost as bad as History of Magic. Who cared about the moon and its cycles and the constellations and all that? The only good thing that happened was that Remus was able to earn half of James' lost points back by the end of the period.

"Geez, you sure know a lot about the moon," James pointed out rather nonchalantly after class. Remus, for some odd reason, blushed.

"The moon is—it's important, isn't it? I mean…"

"I guess. But really? Sinistra asked for the date of the next full moon, and you already had your hand in the air. Crazy, you are."

"Mm. Crazy."

The walked in silence for a moment and found themselves back in the Great Hall. They sat themselves down at the Gryffindor table and had only a moment to wait before they were joined by some visitors.

"Well hello there, dearest cousin," a sickeningly sweet voice said from somewhere behind James and Sirius, who were sitting side-by-side.

"Bellatrix," he said stiffly. "Heard you were messing with my friend Peter here yesterday." Peter looked determinedly at his plate and began to breathe a little more quickly.

"Ahh ickle firstie, hm? Yes, I remember him. I was just going to practice some of my more… advanced, seventh year curses on him. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?" she whispered, leaning in towards Peter, who had tears in his eyes.

"Back off him, Bella, he's terrified," said a softer voice. James turned around, expecting a fellow Gryffindor. Instead, he turned into two near-identical Slytherins. One, the older one who had spoken first, had voluminous black hair and heavy-lidded eyes. The other had a less intimidating face and slightly lighter brown hair.

"Thanks, Andromeda," Sirius said to the younger sister. "But I can handle Bella myself. You remember our family gathering last summer…?"

She laughed. "The bat-bogey hex?"

Bellatrix scowled. "You got lucky. I didn't have my wand on me, and that stupid house elf got in my way. Otherwise you'd be dead meat right now."

From behind the two sisters came a third: much paler in appearance but held with the same air. "Did you tell him yet?"

"Tell me what?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, Cissy, tell him what?" repeated Andromeda.

Bellatrix's eyes narrowed maliciously. "Oh, just that we wrote to your mother to tell her how your—ah—sorting went. We knew she'd be _so_ happy to hear the news."

"You didn't!" the middle sister, Andromeda, exclaimed. Narcissa and Bellatrix just smiled.

Sirius, who had been holding up so well, suddenly paled. "Why? Now she's gonna—and—but you guys—" He stumbled from the bench and reached for his wand. Before he could hold it up, Bellatrix had hit him with some sort of jinx that made him wheeze like the breath had just been knocked out of him.

"Bellatrix Black!" McGonagall's strict voice called from across the hall, "Twenty points from Slytherin and detention with me, tomorrow. Lines. And if you _fail_ to show up, like so many detentions before, it will be _much worse_."

**A/N: Sorry for the fail ending guys, couldn't figure out how to finish it off, and I didn't want to make it way too long. Ummmm yeah. More to come soon (if it's not already up).**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling. I am not JK Rowling. Therefore, by the transitive property, Harry Potter is not mine.**

The rest of the week flew by rather quickly, as their remaining classes consisted of tons of new information being thrown at them, but no practical work. They were lectured in each and every class about the dangers of wandwaving and mis-read incantations and the dangers of backfiring spells, but nothing could stop the four friends from practicing their spellwork back in the dormitory. James' detention was scheduled for Friday night (much to their relief, as Saturday and Sunday were to be put aside for exploring) and besides a slight fire caused by Peter's backfiring wand, nothing very exciting happened.

James and Lily were to do their detentions together that night, simply cleaning up around the potions dungeon. Apparently, Slughorn had requested the two specifically, which came as a great shock to James.

"What d'you reckon he wants with us?" James asked his friends during dinner, just before his detention.

"I dunno," Sirius said. After three days, he still wasn't making any attempt at being social. He was just waiting for a howler. "It's just detention, mate. No need to get all bothered about it."

"I heard he has a club," Peter piped up. "Maybe he wants you to join it?"

"The Slug Club? But then why's he asking us to _detention_?"

They all shrugged, and at that moment their conversation was cut short by Lily Evans. She tapped James gently on the shoulder. "Would you like to head down together?" she asked, stiffly and rather coldly.

"Sure," he said, brushing crumbs off himself and standing up. He couldn't help but notice that she was within an inch of his height. This bothered him, for some strange reason. Snivellus was a good three inches taller than her…

James waved to his friends and set off behind Lily, who was walking briskly with her nose firmly in the air. She was determinedly looking away from him, and he knew it.

"I'm really not all that bad, you know. And we're both Gryffindor… aren't we supposed to be like family or something like that?" he asked.

She sighed. "I guess. But you know, having friends in other houses is perfectly acceptable too… I don't know why you're so set against other houses; I just can't believe that you'd try to pick on Sev because he's in a different house—"

"Woah, woah, I didn't pick on him because he's in another house… I picked on him because he's in _Slytherin_. They're _evil_, Evans! Well, maybe not all of them." He thought briefly of Sirius's cousin—the middle sister. "But a lot of them are. And Snivellus is just so… so…" he caught Lily's eye and realized he had just dug himself into a hole. "I mean, I didn't… I'm not… ergh!" he said, slapping him palm to his face. "Forget it. You wouldn't understand."

"Why wouldn't I? Because I'm _muggleborn?_" she accused.

"Muggle—what does that have to do with anything? Now you're confusing me with Slytherins; they're the racist ones. Pure-blood all the way and anything less is scum in their eyes."

"Liar!" she shouted. "Sev told me that it wouldn't—that it doesn't make a difference…"

"Well, he's full of dung then, isn't he? He's in Slytherin—he'll be one of the worst, you'll see. I'd never hold that against you, ever. He, on the other hand—"

"You're the prejudiced one! Turning against him just because he's a Slytherin without giving him a chance—when he's never done anything to you—"

"Alright, you know what? Stop putting us in the same category. I don't want to be compared to him. He's a slimeball and a Slytherin, and I don't care if you think I'm prejudiced for saying so! I don't like him for reasons that I'll never quite be able to explain to you without jumping down my throat, so just stop talking!"

Lily opened her mouth again, thought better, and closed it. She sped up a few steps before turning around to shout, "You arrogant little JERK!" James just stuck out his tongue, because he could think of nothing better to do that didn't involve cursing a girl.

It took a moment for James to realize that he and Lily had been having their fight right outside the potion master's door, and that this particular potions master was head of Slytherin house. Which may have been why James got a less-than-warm welcome into the dungeon where detention was to take place.

Lily, on the other hand, was showered with affection by Professor Slughorn. Though they were supposed to be sorting potions ingredients, he would call her away every few minutes to examine a book or get her opinion on some famous wizard or other. Her answers seemed to delight him, for he gave a booming laugh every time she answered. By the end of the night, James was stuck doing the detention by himself while Slughorn reminisced to Lily about some old student.

"Very bright, he was, very bright. No surprise to me at all when he went on to the Ministry. Still sends me crystallized pinapple every year for my birthday. Now, Lily, I'm having a bit of a dinner party in a couple weeks—nothing too fancy, but I was wondering if you would like to come. It's rather select, though, so don't go spreading it around," he said in a rather loud whisper. "I've been trying to corner your friend Severus, as well, to invite him, but he keeps slipping out of the common room to visit you. So if I don't get around to it, would you mind telling him…?"

"Of course, sir. I'm sure he'd be delighted. I know I am," she said, beaming.

"Sir, can we leave?" James asked rather obnoxiously. It seemed as if Slughorn had forgotten he was in the room.

"What? Oh, yes, Potter, of course. Hurry along, it's almost two hours past curfew, isn't it? Merlin's beard, how time flies." James dumped a handful of flobberworms into a bucket and ran out of the dungeon, leaving Lily behind.

When he stormed back into the Common Room a half an hour later, muttering to himself, he didn't even look where he was going and ran directly into Remus, who was carrying a small satchel. Remus, being rail thin, was knocked over by the impact.

"Sorry, mate!" James said, holding out his hand to help Remus up.

"N-no problem." James noticed that his friend's eyes were darting around the common room as though panicked, and he looked in a huge hurry to get out of there.

"Is something wrong?"

"N-no, no, of c-course not," he stuttered. "I just, er, I have to…" he tried to dart past James, but James' arm blocked his exit from the portrait hole. Remus looked terrified; there were tears quivering in his eyes.

"Are you sure everything's fine? You look like you're about to be sick."

"I just need to go, James," Remus said weakly. James looked at him suspiciously for a moment, then lifted his arm to let his friend pass. "Thank you," Remus said, relief flooding his voice as he scampered away.

James called after him. "If anything's the matter and you want to, um, talk…" he suddenly felt very awkward. Talking about feelings wasn't his strong point, but if one of his fellow Gryffindors was upset…

He thought Remus may have looked back for a split second, but he couldn't be sure.

Sirius and Peter had already fallen asleep in their dormitory by the time James got there, so talking about Remus would have to wait until tomorrow.

_Tomorrow!_ They were finally going to explore the castle tomorrow night. Was Remus going to be back? _He'd better be_. James thought_, or we're going without him._


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: HP=not mine, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc.**

When James awoke the next day, Remus had not returned. Sirius and Peter were both on the floor of the dormitory playing a game of wizard chess, which explained what had woken James. It seemed that Sirius' queen had just knocked the head off of Peter's only remaining pawn.

"That's it, isn't it?" Sirius said, rather smugly. "Checkmate!"

"Oh, you _always _win," Peter whined.

James stretched and slid out from under the covers, walking over to stand above his friends. "Did Remus ever come back?"

"Come back?" Sirius said, chucking his chess pieces in a bag. "When did he leave?"

"Last night, when I was coming in from detention. Must have been around midnight or something."

"We didn't even see him leave!" Peter said. "He was just getting in his bed like we were, and then we fell asleep, and when we woke up this morning we figured he'd just gone down to breakfast early."

"Yeah, you sure he's not at breakfast?"

"Well, I mean, I guess we could check." But James knew, somehow, that Remus would not be at breakfast.

When they couldn't find him at breakfast, Sirius made it his business to question everyone about the disappearance of their friend. He asked all the girls in their year, the prefects, and even jumped over to the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables to see if Remus was hiding amongst them.

"Looking for something?" a nasty voice called from a few feet away.

"Yes, actually, Bella, I am. Now if you could just bugger off for a moment, that would be _splendid_."

"Listen, you little twit," Bellatrix said, grabbing her cousin by the front of his robes and sticking her wand threateningly in his face, "You watch your mouth. Just because we're in school doesn't mean I'm not willing to cross the line." Sirius looked back at her with his eleven-year-old face set in a determined expression. James began to slowly pull out his wand. He wasn't sure exactly what he would be able to throw against a seventh year, but he wasn't going to sit and watch as his friend got hit by a curse. Peter, too, was fumbling for his wand, though James thought it might be better if he just ran away.

But nothing broke out. Bellatrix threw her cousin down on the Ravenclaw bench and turned to leave. "Oh, by the way," she said, pulling something out from her robes. "This came from your mother." She threw a piece of parchment down on the table. Sirius picked it up, read it quickly, and slammed it back down on the table with tears in his eyes. Without a word, he stood up and ran from the Great Hall, his oldest cousin laughing harshly at his back.

"Come on," James muttered to Peter, grabbing the crinkled mess of parchment and dashing out of the Hall behind Sirius.

They went as fast as they could to their dormitory, but Sirius was nowhere to be found. They checked the common room quickly, but doubted that Sirius would have let himself be seen in public, upset as he was.

So they went back up to their dormitory and tried to decide on what to do next. Peter seemed fresh out of ideas, but found everything James said to be a wonderful and perfect plan. Usually, James would have agreed, but with Sirius and Remus missing, Peter was just getting kind of annoying.

James still had the piece of parchment that Sirius had thrown away clutched in his hand. He wanted to read it, but away from Peter's prying eyes. For some reason, he felt that Sirius wouldn't mind his reading it, as long as the news didn't get spread around. And Peter was not known for being the best secret keeper.

"Listen, Peter… why don't we split up and look for him? You can go to the, uh, library, and I'll check… around the dungeons. Sound good?"

Peter thought the idea was brilliant, and headed off immediately to the library. As soon as he was out of sight, James dashed back to the dormitory and opened up the letter from Sirius' mum.

_Dearest Bellatrix,_

_ Thank you for informing me about my older son's sorting. He has always been a trouble maker, but I never believed he would have gone so far as to be sorted into another house, especially, of all things, Gryffindor. If you see him, please tell him that he is not to come home for Christmas this year as punishment for defiling the name of The Ancient and Most Noble House of Black. If he should come home, he will not return to Hogwarts, and I will make it my strict business to homeschool him. I swear, if he keeps heading down this dangerous path, he will be burned off the family tree._

_ In happier news, glad to hear your term is going well. Sounds like you've got quite the shot at winning the house cup this year. Regulus misses you and Narcissa dearly, and wishes you all the best._

_ Much love,_

_ Aunt Walburga_

It was horrible; James felt sick to his stomach just looking at the piece of parchment. How could a mother be so mean? He couldn't even imagine his mum telling him not to come home for Christmas.

Speaking of which—he hadn't written to his parents yet. It didn't seem like quite the appropriate time to do so, but he would forget if he didn't do it now. Taking a fresh piece of parchment and a quill from his trunk, he began to write:

_Dear Mum and Dad,_

_ Hogwarts is great! I got sorted into Gryffindor, just like I knew I would. I've already made some great friends besides Peter. Oh, he got sorted into Gryffindor too. But I made other friends in Gryffindor, like Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. I guess that Sirius is the first one in his family to ever not be sorted into Slytherin, and his parents aren't very happy. I am, though. Sirius is the coolest friend ever. Remus ran out of the dormitory last night and he hasn't come back yet, and Sirius is missing too. But that's because he just got some awful news. Sirius, I mean. I don't know why Remus is missing. Anyway, I was wondering if Sirius could stay with us for Christmas, because it seems like his family's really mad at him right now. I know it's three months away, but I thought he would need some good news._

_ Love,_

_ James_

He folded the parchment and put it on the inside of his robes. Sirius's letter he tucked under his own pillow for now, hoping he could find a better way to dispose of it later. Like feeding it to a dragon. Something that was suitable for such a horrible letter.

James reached down to close his trunk, and realized that it had been rifled through. Not much, but more than what James had done himself to get the parchment and quill out. He searched through the contents, already pretty sure about what would be moved or missing.

He pulled back his trunk's contents until the bottom of the upper left corner was exposed. This was the corner he had been keeping his invisibility cloak in. As expected, the cloak was gone.

Sirius must have taken it; there was no other explanation. But where would he be hiding with the cloak? Somewhere he knew they would look, obviously. James scanned the room carefully. He couldn't see any sign of a person hiding beneath an invisibility cloak, but that would be the point, wouldn't it?

"Accio—accio cloak," James tried, whispering the spell and pointing in a random direction. He had never successfully done this spell, but maybe with his own wand…

Nothing. Well, not nothing. There was a flicker next to Sirius' bed. The spell hadn't been successful, but he found where Sirius was hiding. He stepped over there quietly and groped around, trying to feel the cloak.

Sirius beat him to it, whipping the cloak off himself and throwing it back at James. Sirius had shed a few silent tears, and now just looked down at the floor, his fingernail scratching absent-mindedly on the floor.

"I hate my family," Sirius said, very simply. James didn't know what to say. What could he tell Sirius to make him feel better? He, who came from a loving family with money and parents who didn't care where he was sorted and respected everyone they came across.

"They think, just because we're rich and pureblooded and have a cranky old house elf that we're entitled to everything. And if you break the mold, stick a toe out of line, you're dirt. I told you on the train—they think that blood purification is the right way to go. This Voldemort guy—they expected me to rally behind him. Be in Slytherin, become a Death Eater, fight for the rights of the privileged, not the ones that're being stepped on. Even my cousins have bought into it—Bellatrix would kill to be the right-hand woman of Voldemort. Narcissa, too, she thinks it's perfect. They have their own little clique that runs around praising him and practicing Dark Arts behind the teachers' backs. It's horrible and I hate it and I wish that I wasn't related to them."

"I'm sorry, Sirius. Really, I am. And I wish I could help you—I asked my mum if you could come for Christmas—I just have to send it off." Sirius gave a small, melancholy smile. It seemed there was nothing left to say, so James patted his friend awkwardly on the shoulder and stood up. "I'm going to go to the Owlery—come if you want."

Sirius nodded and stood up. James turned away as his friend wiped his face and tried to make himself look like he didn't care.

They walked in silence to the Owlery, and even after James sent Godric away with his letter, couldn't think of anything to say.

After a few minutes more of walking in silence (this time towards the library, to pick up Peter), Sirius cleared his throat. "Thanks," he said quietly.

"No problem," said James. Before they could relapse into awkward silence, he added, "But we've still got another friend to find before we're a complete group again."

Sirius smiled. "Right. The mysterious, disappearing Remus!"

"Where do you say we look next?"

"Everywhere!" said Sirius. The two boys looked at each other and began laughing hysterically for no reason at all.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: As much as I may wish to be JK Rowling, I am not. So Harry Potter doesn't belong to me.**

Finding out what happened to Lupin was not as difficult as they thought it would be.

"He went home for the weekend, Potter," McGonagall answered simply when he asked her.

Sirius was not satisfied with this answer. It seemed he needed a distraction from his mother's letter, and finding out what happened to Lupin would be it. "But why? He's coming back right? When?"

Professor McGonagall looked sternly over her glasses. "Yes, he will be returning—probably sometime Monday night. He has just gone to visit his family. His father requested that he come home for a few days, and I said it was alright. Now, if you really want to help him, I suggest you take notes during class on Monday and stop prying into his personal business." And with that, she sent them from her office.

"I wonder what's wrong," Peter wondered absent-mindedly.

"Yeah," said Sirius. There wasn't much more to say on the subject.

"So are we…still going out tonight then? Without him?" James asked his friends. All three of them looked at each other uneasily. They felt uncomfortable leaving Remus out, but they also really wanted to explore.

"Yeah, we're still going," Sirius finally decided. "I need a distraction," he explained, with a meaningful glance at James.

"Right. Yeah. Okay, so we'll explore and just tell Remus everything that happened. And we'll show him some other time."

The rest of the day was spent planning and plotting: where they would look, what they were looking for, and what they would bring with them. Wands were a must, as was the invisibility cloak. Besides that, no one could really think of anything useful to bring, as most of their so-called "supplies" would be noisy and fit only for trouble making.

The three boys waited until just before curfew to leave their dormitory. They knew that there was a group of seventh years that had yet to come back to the common room, so they waited, hidden beneath the cloak, for the portrait hole to open. When it did, they scuttled past the older students and out of the portrait hole, each one of them burning with excitement.

"Uh, guys…" James said suddenly, "How do we get back in?"

"Who cares?" Sirius whispered excitedly. "It's not like the Fat Lady's gonna report us. We just have to get back here without getting caught, right?"

"Yeah, I'm sure we'll be fine James. Let's go!" Peter giggled, almost wetting himself with excitement.

"Calm down, Peter!" Sirius said. "You're going to get us all caught if you don't stop squealing."

After much debate (all planning was forgotten at this point) they decided to head up towards where they had seen Filch a few days ago, since there was definitely a secret passageway there. It was on the fourth floor, so they headed towards the nearest staircase.

They found their way back to the spot pretty easily, but finding the trigger to open the passageway was proving rather difficult.

"What do you think we have to do?" James whispered.

"Tap a brick or something, probably," Sirius answered, carefully observing all the bricks on the stretch of wall. "Like to get into Diagon Alley."

"That makes sense!"

"Obviously, Peter, otherwise I wouldn't have said it," Sirius snapped.

"Shh!"

They searched in silence for a moment more before James finally pointed something out. "Look," he said. "There. Are those…"

"Initials?" Peter finished, squinting towards James' finger. "Yeah…"

"I think…I think it says 'BS,'" Sirius said, pressing on it with his finger tip. That did the trick. With a slight clang, like a spring being released, the wall jumped back, revealing a tunnel. It took all the boys' willpower to stay quiet while they entered the vast opening, and once inside they couldn't help but give small cries of excitement.

"Our first secret passageway!" James cried.

"Shhh, keep it down!" Sirius said, unable to conceal a grin as he closed the wall behind him. They tore off the invisibility cloak and ran down the passageway, completely unaware as to where they were going.

"Where do you think it comes out?" Peter asked, skipping every few steps from excitement.

"Well, it's heading downhill a bit, so I'm assuming the third floor, or maybe the second." James replied.

Eventually, the team came to another piece of wall, this time with a hole in it large enough for them to fit through, with what seemed to be a portrait hanging in front of it. They tapped on the back of the painting gently, and heard a muffled voice on the other side.

"Filch, is that you?" the portrait said. The three boys looked at one another. What were they supposed to say?

James spoke first. "No, it's, er, students." He prayed that the portrait wouldn't give them away, because if he did, they were trapped.

"Students, eh? You found my secret passageway, did you?" Thankfully, the portrait swung forward without shouting for staff. James, Sirius, and Peter climbed out and looked at the room and the portrait. They seemed to be in the trophy room, and the plaque beneath the portrait of a young, bewhiskered man said "Brutus Scrimegour."

"Brutus Scrimegour… you wrote…"

"_The Beater's Bible," _he said, smiling. "That's me."

"I actually read that book—I love Quidditch," James said, smiling. "Though I'm more of a Chaser, myself."

"Chaser, eh?"

"Yes, sir." Brutus gave them all a searching look.

"Well," he said, ruffling his painted moustache, "You seem like adventurous young lads, don't you?"

"The most adventurous, sir," Sirius said.

"I'm going to tell you a secret," Brutus said, beckoning a finger. The three boys leaned in closer. "I created this passageway a few years ago, when I went to Hogwarts. Found that piece of wall that you boys just went through, but this end of the passage was blocked. So I blasted it open. They ended up hanging an old tapestry here, until I donated this portrait and a book, and specifically requested that I be used to cover the hole." He chuckled. "I've been bound with a password though, so if you want to get through me again, you'll have to use it, and _not tell anyone about this passage._ You understand?" The boys nodded eagerly, and Brutus whispered the password so low they could barely hear him. "_Beati pacifici_. You got that?" The boys nodded. "And one more thing—could I trust you to tell me something?"

"Of course, sir!" James said.

"I was rather adventurous when I went here as well—but there was one passageway that I was never able to get into. I found it the last week of my seventh year, quite by accident, and was never able to find out where it led."

"Where is it?" Sirius asked, a little too harshly.

"Well, I was just getting to that, wasn't I? It's in the statue of Gunhilda of Gorsemoor. Do you know where that is?" They all shook their heads. "The one-eyed witch, next to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room. Make sure no one's around—the password is _Dissendium_, or it was when I opened it a few years ago. Go explore a bit, and tell me what you find, would you?"

The three boys assured Brutus that they would let him know what they found, and then began to bid him farewell for the night.

"Wait—Brutus, _Filch_ doesn't know about this passageway, does he? You didn't tell him?"

"Filch! Pah, he's just a lying sneak with a vendetta against the students. No reason to give away a wonderful secret to a cranky fellow such as him."

James breathed a sigh of relief and ran off to join his friends. "Oh—thank you!" he called after him.

When they were back in the hallway, James made sure to throw the invisibility cloak over him and his two friends. They argued for a bit before finally deciding to check out the secret passageway that Brutus had mentioned.

Unfortunately, their escapade was interrupted by none other than the caretaker himself, who ran right by them and into the trophy room.

"Were you talking to someone, Brutus?" he wheezed, trying to catch his breath.

"Talking to someone? No, no, of course not!"

Sirius, James, and Peter looked at each other from under the cloak. As interesting as Brutus was, he was a terrible liar. They had to get back to the dormitories or risk getting caught by Filch.

The trip back took a little longer than they thought it would, being slightly disoriented from taking a secret passageway (they had never been in the trophy room before), but they eventually made it back to the Gryffindor Tower without any trouble. After a bit of a scolding from the Fat Lady, the three clambered in through the portrait hole and put themselves to bed, the promise of another adventure hanging in the air between them.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, etc, etc.**

Unfortunately, the boys were barred from leaving the common room that night due to too many people crowded around the notice boards. There was no way for them to push through the crowds and escape unnoticed, especially since Professor McGonagall was within the large group of people.

"What's so exciting?" James asked Sirius, who was taller than him or Peter.

"Uh—flying lessons. They start next week with the Slytherins. Ugh. That one's for us. Everyone else is crowded around for—" he squinted, "Oh. Quidditch tryouts. Figures." Sirius said, waving a hand.

"Quidditch tryouts?"

"James, first years aren't allowed to try out…"

"Oh, shut it, Peter. I'll find a way."

"Ah, just leave it, James. They've got three Chasers already—just wait until next year, when Wood graduates. There'll be plenty of room for you then. Besides, McGonagall is the one you've got to go to if you want to sign up, and she'll never let you."

"You wanna bet?" James asked, turning and walking briskly over to his Head of House.

He stood right in front of her, with what he thought to be a winning smile on his face. "Hello there, Professor. Fancy seeing you here!"

James thought he saw the corner of her mouth twitch involuntarily into a smile, but then her expression was just as fierce as ever. "Yes, Potter? And what do you want?"

"Well, I was just wondering about these Quidditch tryouts, you see… Is it really _fair_ to exclude first years? After all, age is no show of talent, and it's extremely unfair… it's, uh, discrimination! Against… first years! Yes. So really, you can't… be…"

Professor McGonagall really was smiling now, but not in the way James wanted. It was an amused smile, rather than an accepting one. "Now, James, I knew your father when he was at Hogwarts—he was a fine Quidditch player, and I'm sure you will be too, in time. But I really can't let you try out. It wouldn't be fair to the other first years, especially those who have never flown before. And we wouldn't want to discriminate against them, would we?"

"Yes, but…"

"Next year, Potter." And with that, she turned back through the crowd and out of the portrait hole.

Sirius walked over casually, hands in his pockets and hiding a smile. "So…how'd it go?" James could tell he was about to burst with laughter.

"Oh, shut it."

Peter and Sirius both began laughing hysterically, and James just looked on with a sour expression. "You wait. I might not be allowed to try out until next year—but when I do, I'm going to be the most famous Chaser this school has ever seen!" He stormed off to the dormitory, upset with his failure and his friends' laughter.

They followed him right inside, so James stuffed his head in his pillow and refused to look up when Sirius spoke. "Ah, we didn't mean it, James. You'll be a better Quidditch player than I'll ever be. I hate brooms."

"How can you hate brooms?" James muttered.

"They're just so… I don't know. Hard to sit on. And boring, to me. I'm no great shakes at Quidditch, and to just ride around on them. Now, if I could get some sort of… machine up in the air. Something really comfortable, and big, and scary, and get _that_ to fly… That'd be very cool."

"I guess," James said, still rather peeved with his friends. It was clear that he would not accept apologies or condolences tonight, so his friends slipped off into bed as well.

The next few days passed without any sort of issues. Remus came back Monday night, looking tired and beat up. He had a group of scratches on his arm which he swore were from his cat, and refused to speak when asked about his weekend. Their classes didn't seem to change at all, except it was becoming slightly clearer as to who was gifted in certain subjects and who was not. Unfortunately for Peter, he fell into the "not" category more times than anyone would have liked.

"I just don't _understand_,"he whimpered after a rather simple transfiguration lesson.

"It's easy, mate. Since the two objects look similar, you just…" and Sirius went into a long-winded, simply phrased explanation of transforming a match into a needle. Peter looked just as dumbfounded as he had when they left the class.

"We'll help you tonight in the Common Room, Peter," said Remus quietly. "We can practice." The other three, much to Peter's dismay, seemed to have mastered the spell by the end of the class.

"Yeah, don't worry, Pete. We'll work with you. You'll catch up to us soon enough!" James said, throwing his arm over his friend's shoulder.

"You think so?"

"Well, I sure hope so. Otherwise you won't be moving to second year!" Peter paled at this statement, but James and Sirius burst out laughing. Even Remus cracked a small smile.

"Ah, don't worry. He's kidding," Sirius said, thumping Peter on the back. "You'll get the hang of it all soon enough."

It wasn't only Transfiguration Peter had trouble with, though. It seemed that he was struggling in every class. Over the next few weeks, he was assigned more homework than anyone, simply because he could not get the hang of… anything. He was catching up, but slowly enough that he was perpetually behind the rest of the class. Even with the assistance of James, Sirius, and Remus, Peter sometimes struggled to get his homework done.

Everyone else seemed to be slowly finding their strengths. Remus was quite good at Defense Against the Dark Arts, James at Transfiguration, Sirius at Charms (both the class and in the way of influencing people). Why, even Snivellus was talented at Potions. Poor Peter was having trouble finding his place.

When the time came for flying lessons, his three friends were almost desperate for him to be good at something.

The Quidditch pitch was green and perfect, and James couldn't help but look around with excitement. The lesson itself wasn't going to be worth much, as he could already work a broom, but it'd be fun to fly around and see what other people could do.

"Gather round, everyone!" Madame Hooch, the flight instructor called out. There were brooms already laid out for every pupil. "Pick a broom and stand beside it."

The four Gryffindors hurried to get brooms right in a row. Unfortunately, this placed them directly across from Lily Evans and her best friend, Snivellus Snape.

As much as he wanted to help Peter succeed in something, he couldn't keep his eyes off Lily and Snape. He just couldn't understand their friendship—he was so… so… James couldn't quite figure out what, but he didn't like it. Especially when paired when a Gryffindor girl, even if that Gryffindor girl was extremely annoying and hated him.

"Stand over your broom, hold out your right hand, and say 'Up!'" Madame Hooch instructed, snapping James out of his thoughts. He did as instructed, and his broom leapt right into his hand. Sirius' seemed to rise up kind of lazily, and Remus' wobbled slightly before it reached his hand. Poor Peter's stayed planted firmly on the ground.

James could almost hear the groans from his friends. "Peter, you've just got to _mean_ it," James muttered towards his friends. Peter nodded and tried again. His broom gave a feeble wobble and rolled over. "Peter, come _on._ You can do this, really!"

On the third attempt, Peter's broom finally made its way into his hand. Slowly, true, but he at least wasn't the last one. There was still one Gryffindor girl and two Slytherins who hadn't yet gotten their brooms to rise. Madame Hooch was puttering around, helping each of them individually. Peter looked a bit pleased with himself, since up until this point he was _always _the last person to get the hang of things.

Across from James, both Lily and Snivellus had managed to get their brooms off the ground without too much off an issue, even though they looked somewhat terrified. When Madame Hooch finally told everyone to mount their brooms and take off for a few moments, they were in the group still stuck on the ground… along with Peter.

The group that had managed to take off and hover for a few moments came back to the ground after about ten seconds. The other group looked around awkwardly, double checking to make sure they weren't the only ones left on the ground.

"That was a wonderful attempt!" said Madame Hooch, clapping her hands together. "Now, one more time, this time with more will. Hold on tight to your broomsticks, and push off the ground firmly. Trust in the broom! Ready… three, two, one…" she blew twice on her whistle, and everyone pushed into the air again. This time, almost everyone got off the ground, even Peter.

James looked around at his friends and gave a whoop of joy. Sirius looked over, excited despite his rant against broomsticks yesterday. Remus looked like he always did whenever something exciting happened—surprised and rather shaky—and Peter was gripping his broomstick so tightly his fingers were turning white. Still, he was… sort of getting the hang of it.

The Slytherins (for the most part) were getting along just fine, and so were Mary, Emily, and Jane, three of the Gryffindor girls in their year.

Lily, too, wasn't too bad. He wondered if she would ever try out for Quidditch. Snape, on the other hand…

"Hey Snivellus, you can get your nose off the broom—don't want all that grease wearing through the wood!" the words jumped out of James' mouth before he could stop them.

"Potter!" Madame Hooch scolded. "Ten points from Gryffindor. And you go join the others in the goal area." She gestured towards a small group of students: the ones who looked comfortable on a broom already. Sirius was sent over there as well, but Remus and Peter were told to stay behind.

There was an extra Quaffle out for the kids to play with, but most of them were content with racing around the goal posts and watching as, one by one, the other students joined them. Even Peter, eventually, was sent over with to the "big kids," and, miracle of miracles, he wasn't the last one sent over. There were still three people left—a Slytherin boy, a Slytherin girl, and a Gryffindor girl, when the bell rang.

Though James didn't think the day had been much of an improvement for Peter, the boy in question was grinning from ear to ear. "I wasn't the worst!" he cried as they strolled into the Great Hall. "And you know, maybe one day I'll try out for Quidditch or something!"

"Yeah, Pete, you keep that dream alive," Sirius said, only a bare hint of sarcasm in his voice.

**AN: Sorry this chapter was kind of… dull. I've been away and just wanted to spit something out and get it up on fanfiction. I'm going away again, but this time **_**with**_** my laptop, so hopefully I'll get something up sometime throughout the week :) Thanks for reading and please review xx**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: Typical nonsense about not owning Harry Potter and being sad about this :(**

The boys, despite swearing to find every secret passageway in the castle, had not made much progress on exploring. Their school work (mostly Peter's schoolwork, actually) had kept them too busy to run around the castle at night. It wasn't until the last week of September that they were able to sneak out of their dormitory again. This time, with Remus.

Though no one wanted to admit it, Remus was being a bit annoying about the whole sneaking-out-of-bed thing. They thought he'd be all for it; eager to explore the castle. Instead, he kept panicking about getting caught and breathing too heavily and trying to get them to turn around and go back.

"Listen, Remus. We did this last week, and we were perfectly fine, okay? We're under an invisibility cloak. Hush up and _no one will find us_!" Sirius whisper-shouted after the fourth time Remus suggested going back.

"You don't understand… I can't get caught, I can't. Please, let's go back. _Please_."

"Oh, what's the worst that'll happen if they find you?" James snapped.

"I'll be expelled, I will, I'm telling you!"

"They won't expel you for one stupid bout of rule breaking!"

"You don't understand, I'm not even supposed to be here! They'll kick me out as soon as I get in trouble!"

"Not supposed to be here? What does that—wait, quiet!" James stopped suddenly, causing the other three to bump into one another.

They listened as footsteps drew nearer. Even Remus stopped his hyperventilating (though that may have been because he was so panicked he forgot to breathe) and turned his head to the source of the noise. Because of their squabbling they hadn't noticed how close they were until now.

"Hurry, next to the wall," Sirius breathed. The four boys pressed their backs against the stone as the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom door opened and Professor Dumbledore exited.

For a moment, James thought they had been caught. Professor Dumbledore was looking straight at them; he was going to pull the cloak off at any moment and take a million points from Gryffindor for being out late at night. Instead, he just looked away, and gave what James could have sworn to be a small wink. No, not a wink—just his eye twitching. He needed to yawn.

It wasn't until after Dumbledore walked away that James realized he had been holding his breath. "Come on, we're almost there."

They sprinted the last few yards around the corner to the statue, holding the folds of the invisibility cloak tight as to not let it fly off of them. It took only steps to reach the statue of the

"What was the word again?" Sirius asked, pulling out his wand.

"Diss- dissendium, I think," Peter said.

"Dissendium," James nodded in agreement.

Remus began hyperventilating again.

Sirius tapped the one-eyed witch's hump and muttered the word. With a puff of dust, the hump in the one-eyed witch's back sprung open to reveal a tunnel. The four boys stood around it, staring deep into its depths.

"Well," said James, after a moment of silence, "Shall we go?"

They all stood around for a moment longer before Sirius jumped up and swung his legs into the tunnel, pulling the invisibility cloak with him. With it gone, they had no choice but to hide themselves within the one-eyed witch.

Peter followed Sirius, and James had to coax Remus into the statue, convincing him it was safer down there than completely unprotected in the middle of a hallway. He reluctantly got in with a final push from James, who slid down directly afterwards.

The tunnel was dark and rather musty, and the ground was damp and cold. The only light came from Sirius' shining wand tip. James and Remus added to the light, and though Peter tried, the second-year spell was slightly out of his range. They were at the beginning of a long, narrow passageway that stretched farther than the wandlight could reach.

"Well…" he said, gazing out towards the pathway, "Let's… go."

The others followed James in silence, walking the twists and turns of the pathway huddled together. Every once in a while someone would trip on the uneven ground.

It took a substantial amount of time for anything to happen. After what felt like an hour, the passage slowly began to rise. They had no idea what was on the other end, or even how long it would take them to get back to the school, but the prospect of the unknown drove them forward. Even Remus, who had been so terrified before, had calmed down and looked positively intrigued.

"Why the sudden change in attitude, Remus?" James asked as the passageway started to get higher.

"Oh I just—interested, I suppose. Not as worried we'll get caught. At least not—" he glanced at his watch, "it's only one in the morning, so we've got plenty of time to get back. If this takes much longer though…"

"A watch… why didn't I think of that?" Sirius mused.

At that point, the group reached a bunch of stairs. Through some sort of silent agreement, they all began climbing without question.

There must have been over two hundred steps. They just kept climbing and climbing, never stopping and only conversing when they had a theory about where they were going.

"We must be outside the grounds right now," Sirius said, about halfway up the stone steps.

"Which direction, do you think? Out towards Hogsmeade? Or under the lake?"

"Hogsmeade, I think."

"Oh, I hope we come out in Zonkos. All those goodies just waiting for us to get our hands on them. All the pranks we could pull. And Filch would never know where we're getting it from all the time!" Sirius cackled.

"Well, he'd know where we were getting it from… just not how we were getting so much, considering we're not allowed in Hogsmeade," Remus pointed out.

Eventually, James and one of the other boys—he wasn't sure which one—simultaneously hit their heads on a wooden trapdoor in the ceiling. Sirius, the tallest of the four, was able to push it just enough that it opened and hit the floor with a bang. After waiting a moment to see if anyone had heard them, they climbed, one by one, through the trapdoor and into some sort of basement.

James and his three companions looked around the basement with their wands held high. Around them were piles and piles of boxes and jars, each one labeled with a different name.

"Fizzing Whizbees," Sirius whispered, turning around one jar.

"And chocolate frogs," James said, reading the side of a rather large box. "And Acid Pops. We must be in…"

"Honeydukes!" Sirius cried, overjoyed. He began picking up candy and stuffing it in his arms. "Come on, everyone grab something!"

Peter jumped right in, filling his pockets with Licorice Wands and Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans. Remus and James looked at one another. "Well, just this once wouldn't hurt…" James said, shrugging. He picked up a box of Chocolate Frogs. Remus, too, picked up some chocolate and put it in his pockets.

"We'll just come back and leave a few Galleons in a box or something," James said to ease his guilty conscience. Still, he took no more than two boxes of Chocolate Frogs (his favorite).

"I feel like… like some sort of marauder or something," Remus whispered, searching through candy boxes for ones that were dented and bent up, because he thought that they would probably be thrown out anyway.

"Marauder? What's that?" Sirius chuckled. "Sounds like some sort of… of…"

"It's kind of like a muggle pirate, I guess, but without the sailing. They loot places like we're doing with the candy and look for secret caves and passages," Remus said, cutting Sirius off.

"Marauder. I like it. It sounds… dangerous!" James said.

"Marauders. We're marauders!" Peter yelped, collapsing into a fit of giggles.

"Shh!" The three others hushed him, grins splitting their faces.

They spent only fifteen minutes in Honeydukes' basement, stuffing their pockets with whatever loot they could fit. Then, they slid back through the trapdoor and back into the underground passage with the stairs.

Remus looked at his watch, determining how much time they would have before people would notice them sneaking back into the dormitory.

They made it back with plenty of time and no trouble with any of the staff. James stuffed his invisibility cloak and candy into his trunk and jumped into bed, far too excited to sleep. It was only after he was comfortably in his bed that he realized they hadn't gone to visit Brutus again.


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does. Lucky duck.**

Every weekend was the same thing: exploring different school corridors, gathering new sweets at Honeydukes, and every once in a while visiting Brutus in his portrait. He was absolutely delighted when they told him his secret passageway led to the cellar of the Hogsmeade candy shop. Each week led to fresh surprises and adventures for the newly-dubbed "Marauders." The name, which had started out as a passing remark from Remus, had turned into an inside joke and eventually the actual, concrete name for the four boys.

Remus went to visit his family once every month; the most explanation they had been able to get from him was that his mother was sick. Even this simple admission made him turn red and dash from the room. Though it was quite obvious he was lying, they didn't push him for an answer. Whatever it was that he had to hide from them must have been pretty bad if he was pretending to have a sick mother.

Halloween brought new surprises for the Marauders. The live bats, giant jack-o-lanterns, and feast gave them something to talk about for another week (though Remus went home the day after). It also marked their first prank in the common room—a simple matter of letting loose a whole bunch of Fanged Frisbees from Zonko's. They tore the place up, but not beyond repair. McGonagall came rushing in and was able to immobilize most of them and then fix up the room with a few "Reparo"s. Though they were caught, there was nothing specifically banning Fanged Frisbees in the common room and they were only punished with points taken away. The next day, Fanged Frisbees were specifically banned from every part of the school. The Marauders were on their way to trouble making history.

More time went on, and schoolwork reached a peak in late November, only to nose dive in December when everyone began to focus on the Christmas holidays. It was only when Professor McGonagall was passing around the list of kids who were staying at Hogwarts that James remembered Sirius had been invited to his place. Sirius, who had been acting rather moody the past few weeks, immediately brightened at this news and pulled a nice prank in good holiday spirits. Unfortunately, he was caught by McGonagall, who punished him with lines, even as she chuckled quietly at the gnome stuck atop the Common Room Christmas tree.

The trip home was quick and painless, except for a minor run-in with Sirius' cousins. They insisted on stopping by to ask him where he could possibly be going, as he wasn't wanted at home. He slammed a compartment door in their face and managed to close the door on one of Narcissa's fingers, which prompted Bellatrix to break the window before she was carted away by a rather angry trolley lady. Remus repaired the glass without a problem, and Peter just cowered in the corner. He still hadn't gotten over his first meeting with Bellatrix.

James spotted his parents as soon as he got off the train. After gathering his belongings, he waved goodbye to Remus and Peter, grabbed Sirius' arm, and ran over to his parents. Even though it had only been a few months and they had written constantly, it was infinitely better to have them right there, in person. They gathered him into a hug before he even had the chance to introduce them to his best friend.

When they released him, he was blushing furiously—almost as badly as Remus when he tried to tell a lie. "Mum, Dad… This is Sirius Black," he said, waving his arm in Sirius' general direction.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Potter!" Sirius said gleefully, immediately holding out a hand for them to shake.

"And you as well," Mr. Potter said, grabbing the boy's hand. "Now, Black… you'll be…"

"Orion and Walburga's son, of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, yeah. I'm 'heir' to the house or whatever… but I'm a Gryffindor, sir! Not like them at all."

Mrs. Potter smiled a little sadly, clearly thinking about what James had written many months ago in his letter about the Blacks not wanting Sirius home for Christmas.

"Well, let's get your trunks in the car, shall we?" Mr. Potter picked up both the boy's belongings, placed them on a trolley, and pushed them through to the other side of the barrier.

The Black sisters were standing on the other side, a while away. Though they didn't make any sort of scene with all the muggles and parents standing around, Bellatrix made sure to shoot daggers at Sirius with her eyes. He just looked back at James, making forced but excited conversation.

The drive home took a little while longer than expected, but the excited chatter from the two boys in the back made it seem rather short. Sirius seemed extremely excited to be staying at the Potter's over Christmas. That is, until he actually got to the house.

When Sirius walked through the door, he looked around in awe at his surroundings and became very quiet. James couldn't understand why—the place was just like any old house. The walls painted plainly, a few pictures moving around on the walls, some furniture covering the floor. "It's so… different," Sirius breathed, pacing between the different doors.

"Different?" James laughed. "How so?"

"It's just more… bright. Brighter. And open. And the pictures—my house has portraits of all my inbred cousins covering every inch of wall space, and all these tacky family heirlooms covering every spare inch of the house. It's nothing like this. We shun visitors—well, my mum and dad do. So to just be in a house that's so… open to the world is weird." Sirius turned suddenly to look at James. "You haven't got a house elf, have you?"

"No." He was quite taken aback by the question.

Sirius threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, this is going to be the best Christmas ever!"

The boys, determined to pull an all-nighter, were strictly told off by Mrs. Potter at three in the morning when a game of exploding snap had gotten a bit too loud. James pleaded with his mother to let them stay up, but she threatened to take away all his presents if the two boys didn't get into bed and go to sleep.

"She's not usually like this," James said, a bit embarrassed by his mother's behavior. "I think she's tired… usually she wouldn't care what we do…"

"Trust me; she's better than my mum would ever be. Remind me never to invite you to my house, okay? My mum would spit on you the moment you walked through the door, and I wouldn't be surprised if she tried hexing you if we were up this late."

James couldn't find a reply to this, so he just shifted uncomfortably in bed and waited for sleep to overcome him.

After a good three hour nap, James awoke to find two piles of presents at the foot of his bed. One of them, closest to him, must have had at least twenty presents. The other, the one meant for Sirius, had only six boxes. He could see one from him, one from Remus, one from Peter, and three others he assumed were from members of Sirius's family.

James slid out of bed to get a closer look. The last three presents were indeed from Sirius's family—one from his brother, Regulus, one rather crumpled one from Andromeda, and one from "Uncle Alphie." Sirius was not yet up, so there was still some time to remedy the situation.

Trying to stay as quiet as possible, James began shifting presents from his pile into Sirius' pile, peeling off labels as he did so. He hoped that Sirius wouldn't think twice about the lack of them. He also hoped, rather guiltily, that he wasn't giving away anything _too_ good to his best friend. He was, after all, only an eleven-year-old boy.

James stopped shifting presents when Sirius had eleven presents in his pile and James had fifteen—he thought anything more would start to look suspicious.

Sirius woke just as James had arranged the last present on top of the pile.

"Happy Christmas!" he mumbled, stretching.

"Come on, get up, get up, Sirius—presents!"

"You mean I've got some?" Sirius asked, somewhere between sarcasm and surprise. James suddenly wondered if Sirius would be angry with him if he ever found out about the presents.

"What—what do you mean? Of course you have! Here's one from Peter…" he said, throwing the box into Sirius' head.

"Ouch," he said dismissively, tearing the paper off the gift. "Fizzing Whizbees!" Sirius said, throwing the wrappings to the ground. "What do you want to bet he just took these out of the basement of Honeydukes and gift wrapped them? Ah, well. I'm sure he had good intentions."

"Sure he did," James agreed, grinning. "Come on, open some more." Sirius slid out of bed to sit next to James, and they spent the next hour or so opening their presents and trading items.

James finished off with some Peppermint Imps from Peter (he was pretty sure Sirius was right about nicking them from Honeydukes' basement), a miniature model of a Quidditch stadium from Remus (with fourteen miniscule players), assorted robes, books, and Zonko's products from various family members, and a mirror from Sirius.

"Listen, Sirius, I realize that _you_ might feel the need to look in the mirror every few minutes, but I happen to think I look great without looking in a mirror, and I know you know that. So… what does this do besides act like a mirror?"

Sirius grinned and scampered to the other side of James' bed. He thought he heard something being pulled out from under the bed, but when he tried to look, Sirius waved him away.

"Okay, say my name," Sirius said.

"Your name?"

"Yeah—just say it, to the mirror!"

Skeptical, James did as he said. "Sirius Black!" Suddenly, his reflection had turned into Sirius, who was waving up at him. James almost dropped the mirror in surprise.

"See? It's a two-way mirror!" Sirius' voice was doubled when he said that—James could hear it both from the mirror and behind his bed. "I figured it'd be a good way to stay in touch whenever we're separated. Like if one of us is in detention, we can bring this and talk to each other and make the time go by a little faster."

"Brilliant!" James laughed. "Where'd you find it?"

"Oh, just one of those nasty heirlooms I was talking about cluttering up the _Noble_ House of Black. This one actually seemed pretty cool, and no one was using it, so… I took it."

They spent the next few minutes talking to each other through the mirrors, even though they were only feet from each other. James found that all he had to do to turn the mirror normal again was put it down somewhere.

Sirius seemed to be delighted with his presents, and didn't even bother to ask where they had come from. He seemed especially interested in a book called _Wizard Modes of Transportation and Their Muggle Counterparts_ from one of James' uncles. James would have found the book terribly boring, but something about it sparked Sirius' interest.

Mr. and Mrs. Potter came in at seven thirty, after hearing the ruckus the boys were making, and invited them down to breakfast. Mr. Potter shot a strange glance at the Puddlemere United hat Sirius had stuffed on his head, one of the gifts that James had moved from his pile to Sirius'. James gestured wildly behind his friend's back before his father said anything. He looked surprised at first, then a look of realization seemed to cross his face. He gave a small wink, at which James let out a heavy breath.

"Did you say something?" Sirius said, turning around.

"No, no… come on, let's go down to breakfast."


	14. Chapter 14

**I don't own Harry Potter. But maybe I'll get the rights for my birthday? I will be turning of age in the wizarding world, after all…**

The Christmas holiday went by faster than James and Sirius would have thought possible. They invited Peter and Remus to stay at the Potter's for the New Year, but Remus insisted on staying home with his ill mother.

"Wonder what she has that he's always got to stay with her," Sirius mused, reading the owl which Remus had sent back almost immediately with a reply.

They thought about this only fleetingly, as Peter arrived via Floo Powder. The rest of the night was spent running around the house, and delicately sipping Firewhiskey, provided by Mr. Potter.

Before they knew it, the four Marauders were back at school (Remus looking as though he had just gotten over being ill), with piles of homework and adventures almost every weekend. The four boys slipped back into schedule without a second thought, and it wasn't until late April that anything changed.

There was what seemed to be a hailstorm of owls coming from every direction during the morning post, with letters and newspapers being dropped everywhere. James, Remus, and Peter all got something from their parents. Sirius looked determinedly at his bacon as they began to read.

_Dear James,_

_ Something terrible happened last night. I wish that I were there to tell you in person, and I'm sure Dumbledore will address the matter…_

James looked up at Dumbledore, who was deep in conversation with Professor Slughorn. Dumbledore, calm as always, seemed to be trying to ease the nerves of an extremely worried Slughorn.

… _sometime today, but I've decided to write anyway._

_ Yesterday, two employees of Dervish and Banges were found dead in their shop in Hogsmeade. The Auror Department was summoned immediately to address the matter, and they discovered no less than three proclaimed "Death Eaters"—followers of the so-called "Dark Lord." I know you never knew them, but you must remember that they were people just like anyone else, with families and friends. This war that we are in right now is moving in on everyone and everywhere, and people are beginning to get nervous. I trust Dumbledore and the ministry to protect you students, but I want to make sure you understand the seriousness of this, and do not, under any circumstances, go wandering about by yourself. Keep safe, listen to your teachers, and don't go sneaking around at night._

_ Love,_

_ Mum and Dad_

"Do yours all say the same thing?" James said, peeking over to look at Remus and Peter's letters. Remus stuffed his in his bag rather quickly, but Peter was more than willing to share. Apparently, Peter's parents had known the editors in question when they went to Hogwarts.

"What do they say, anyway?" asked Sirius, trying desperately to sound nonchalant.

"I guess a couple of Dervish and Banges employees were killed by Death Eaters yesterday," James said. The entirety of the Great Hall seemed to be discussing the same topic in the same tone as he was—hushed and confused.

"Oh, that explains it," muttered Sirius, stabbing at his breakfast murderously.

"Explains… what?"

"Well, my parents wouldn't care about their deaths—you just wait, the Prophet'll come and they'll have been muggle-borns. So my parents wouldn't bother informing me. We're purebloods—we would _never_ be murdered by _Voldemort_. He's our _savior_." He scowled.

Everyone seemed to be quite lost for words for a few minutes. Finally, Peter asked what they were all thinking about, with at least a small part of their minds.

"So does this mean… no more, er, Maraudering?"

"Maraudering isn't a word, Pete," said Remus kindly.

"Well, you know what I mean…"

But he was cut off by Dumbledore, who had stood up with his arms out, signaling the students to quiet down.

"Judging by the tone of the Great Hall, many of you have already heard the terrible news which I feel obligated to pass onto you. Rather than standing here trying to protect your delicate selves from the pain which comes with war, I am going to simply jump into this and lay it all out for you. Sugar-coating a matter like this would be disrespectful to those involved."

James could almost feel the whispers as they coursed up and down the four house tables, passing the news to those who _hadn't_ yet heard the news.

"Yesterday, two outstanding citizens and residents of Hogsmeade were killed by a group of Voldemort's followers who call themselves 'Deatheaters.' They had no reason to be hunted by these people besides bitter hatred and racism—things which should not be tolerated by anyone. The three men—two of which have been identified as Rodolphus Lestrange and the werewolf Fenrir Greyback, had no personal quarrel with these people, but were acting on the commands of someone whose hatred for those different from him knows no bounds."

Whispers were flooding up and down the tables now, and it looked like an the Slytherins were arguing amongst themselves. A small group of them had all gathered at one end, heads together, paying no attention to Dumbledore. James could see Snape hovering on the outside of this group, half trying to pay attention to Dumbledore and half intrigued by the conversation going on beside him.

"It is most important now that no one go stray off the school grounds without express permission from myself or one of your professors. The Ministry has placed Dementors at all entrances to Hogsmeade, but I have made the decision to cancel all trips to the village regardless—"

At this there was a swarm of protest from the older students. The younger ones, who were not yet allowed into Hogsmeade anyway, simply began picking at their breakfast as Dumbledore tried to calm the crowd.

"I understand how disappointing this may be to you—but my first priority is to keep you safe, and under the present circumstances I do not feel that trips to Hogsmeade would be in your best interest. Now before this gets out of hand, let us go back to our breakfast and think calmly for a short while." And with that, he sat down.

James looked around at his three friends. None of them spoke for a while. Then Peter spoke up again. "So… no maraudering?"

The four boys looked uneasily around at one another. "I… I dunno," Sirius let out.

"I don't care either way," said James. "I mean, what are the odds they'd find us down there, in the dead of night? And I don't know… do you really think they'd hurt us just for _being _there? We're just kids…"

"Don't be so naïve, James," Remus snapped, letting his fork clatter to the table and gathering his books in a rushed and frustrated manner. His hands fumbled with the strap on his bag as he stood up and strode away without a glance back at his friends.

"Well… what… what was that about?" James spluttered, a bit insulted by Remus' cold attitude.

"Nothing, probably. He's going to go visit his Mum again soon, I think… he's probably just worried about her or something."

"Worried, yeah…" Still, there was something nagging at the back of James' mind, something that he felt he should know but didn't.

"I say we keep it going," said Sirius. "We've got the cloak—if worst comes to worst we'll just bolt. We'll be more careful about wearing it now, too, you know? Keep it on in the basement and everything. They won't catch us."

"True…" James mused. "Alright then, we'll go again this weekend. Not out of the basement though—we probably shouldn't be wandering around the store if they've got Dementors guarding everywhere now, right?"

"Right," Sirius said as Peter opened his mouth to speak. "Well, I'm going to go see if I can't get Remus to let me copy his Transfiguration homework before we head off to class. See you in a few."

He got up from the Gryffindor table and walked across the Great Hall towards the open doors, passing the Slytherin table as he went. For once, his cousins did not jeer and taunt him as he left. They were too busy clipping the articles from the Daily Prophet.

**Sorry it's been so long since I last put something up… School's started and I've had a lot going on. It should be better from here on out, though. I've got my schedule all figured out and everything, so hopefully I'll be posting once every week or two. Thanks for reading :)**


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